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Male Violence and Sexual Intimidation in a Wild Primate Society

Baniel, A; Cowlishaw, G; Huchard, E; (2017) Male Violence and Sexual Intimidation in a Wild Primate Society. Current Biology , 27 (14) pp. 2163-2168. 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.013. Green open access

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Abstract

Sexual violence occurring in the context of long-term heterosexual relationships, such as sexual intimidation, is widespread across human populations [1–3]. However, its evolutionary origins remain speculative because few studies have investigated the existence of comparable forms of sexual coercion in animals [4, 5], in which repeated male aggression toward a female provides the aggressor with delayed mating benefits [6]. Here, we test whether male aggression toward females functions as sexual coercion in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). We found support for all three main predictions of the sexual coercion hypothesis [7]: male aggression (1) is greatest against cycling females, (2) is costly and represents the main source of injuries for cycling females, and (3) increases male mating success with their victims in the future. Detailed analysis of chronological sequences between aggression and matings ruled out other coercive mechanisms, such as short-term harassment and punishment, by showing that aggression and matings are temporally decoupled. This decoupling may explain why some forms of sexual violence have been largely overlooked in well-studied animal populations despite their likely impact on the fitness of both sexes. Finally, we found no support for alternative hypotheses such as a female preference for aggressive males [8, 9]. This new, detailed study of the forms and intensity of sexual intimidation in a wild primate suggests that it may be widespread across mammalian societies, with important implications for understanding the evolution of mate choice and sexual conflict in mammals, as well as the origins of human sexual violence.

Type: Article
Title: Male Violence and Sexual Intimidation in a Wild Primate Society
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.013
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.013
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: sexual conflictsexual coercionintersexual aggressionintimidationpromiscuous matinginjurymating successsex rolesprimates
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567826
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