Infanticide by Males and Its Implications

by Edited by Carel P. van Schaik , Charles H. Janson

• ISBN13: 9780521772952
• ISBN10: 0521772958
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Male primates, carnivores and rodents sometimes kill infants that they did not sire. Infanticide by males is a relatively common phenomenon in these groups, but tends to be rare in any given species. Is this behavior pathological or accidental, or does it reflect a conditional reproductive strategy for males in certain circumstances? In this book, case studies and reviews confirm the adaptive nature of infanticide in males in primates, and help to predict which species should be vulnerable to it. Much of the book is devoted to exploring the evolutionary consequences of the threat of infanticide by males for social and reproductive behavior and physiology. Written for graduate students and researchers in animal behavior, behavioral ecology, biological anthropology and social psychology, this book shows that social systems are shaped not only by ecological pressures, but also social pressures such as infanticide risk.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	viii
Foreword	xi
Sarah B. Hrdy
Infanticide by males: prospectus	1	(6)
Carel P. van Schaik
Charles H. Janson
Part I Introduction	7	(66)
The holy wars about infanticide. Which side are you on? and why?	9	(18)
Volker Sommer
Infanticide by male primates: the sexual selection hypothesis revisited	27	(34)
Carel P. van Schaik
Vulnerability to infanticide by males: patterns among mammals	61	(12)
Carel P. van Schaik
Part II Infanticide by males: case studies	73	(148)
Infanticide in red howlers: female group size, male membership, and a possible link to folivory	75	(24)
Carolyn M. Crockett
Charles H. Janson
Infanticide in hanuman langurs: social organization, male migration, and weaning age	99	(24)
Carola Borries
Andreas Koenig
Male infanticide and defense of infants in chacma baboons	123	(30)
Ryne A. Palombit
Dorothy L. Cheney
Julia Fischer
Sara Johnson
Drew Rendall
Robert M. Seyfarth
Joan B. Silk
Infanticide by males and female choice in wild Thomas's langurs	153	(25)
Romy Steenbeek
The evolution of infanticide in rodents: a comparative analysis	178	(20)
Daniel T. Blumstein
Infanticide by male birds	198	(23)
Jose P. Veiga
Part III Behavioral consequences of infanticide by males	221	(200)
Prevention of infanticide: the perspective of infant primates	223	(16)
Adrian Treves
Infanticide and the evolution of male-female bonds in animals	239	(30)
Ryne A. Palombit
The other side of the coin: infanticide and the evolution of affiliative male-infant interactions in Old World primates	269	(24)
Andreas Paul
Signe Preuschoft
Carel P. van Schaik
Female dispersal and infanticide avoidance in primates	293	(29)
Elisabeth H. M. Sterck
Amanda H. Korstjens
Reproductive patterns in eutherian mammals: adaptations against infanticide?	322	(39)
Maria A. van Noordwijk
Carel P. van Schaik
Paternity confusion and the ovarian cycles of female primates	361	(27)
Carel P. van Schaik
J. Keith Hodges
Charles L. Nunn
Social evolution in primates: the relative roles of ecology and intersexual conflict	388	(33)
Charles L. Nunn
Carel P. van Schaik
Part IV Infanticide by females	421	(46)
Infanticide by female mammals: implications for the evolution of social systems	423	(24)
Leslie Digby
``The hate that love generated''-sexually selected neglect of one's own offspring in humans	447	(20)
Eckart Voland
Peter Stephan
Part V Conclusion	467	(28)
The behavioral ecology of infanticide by males	469	(26)
Charles H. Janson
Carel P. van Schaik
References	495	(60)
Species index	555	(10)
Subject index	565