Abstract
Rare behaviors are often missing from published papers, hampering phylogenetic analyses. Here, we report, for the first time, masturbation and same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) in both male and female black-and-white colobus monkeys. We recorded these behaviors during 32 months of observation (1573 h of focal animal sampling) on Colobus vellerosus collected at the Boabeng–Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in Ghana. Males were observed masturbating and involved in SSB more than females. Subadult males were the age-sex class that engaged in both of these behaviors most often and a third of all SSB observed in young males occurred when they were forming an all-male band (AMB), which are temporally transient social groups in this species. Our data support that masturbation in males may be a sexual outlet for individuals that do not have a current sexual partner, while in females it may function in mate attraction by advertising receptivity. SSB may occur as an evolutionary byproduct but given the temporal clustering of observed events in males prior to AMB formation, our data best support the hypothesis that these behaviors facilitate male-male bonding (i.e., act as social glue). Within AMB’s, males engage in coalitionary behavior to take over social groups containing females and strong bonds are important for success and later access to females, which could have selected for SSB in C. vellerosus.
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Acknowledgements
Robert Koranteng, Kwame Duodo, Kwaku Amponsah, Charles Kudom, Teresa Holmes, and Andrada Robas provided valuable research assistance. We are grateful to the chiefs, traditional priests, and residents of Boabeng and Fiema for kindly welcoming us to their treasured forest. We thank Paul Vasey for the invitation to submit this paper.
Funding
Funding for this research was provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. RGP 203059-06), the University of Calgary, the Province of Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, the American Society of Primatologists, the Animal Behavior Society, the International Primatological Society, The Leakey Foundation, the Sweden-American Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
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Permission to conduct this research was provided by the Ghana Wildlife Division, the management committee of the Boabeng–Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, and the University of Calgary Animal Care Committee.
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Teichroeb, J.A., Fox, S.A., Samartino, S. et al. Non-Reproductive Sexual Behavior in Wild White-Thighed Colobus Monkeys (Colobus vellerosus). Arch Sex Behav 52, 2295–2301 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02561-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02561-2