Presentation Details
Sources of variance in the adolescence duration of female baboons

Ruby L.Mustill1, Elizabeth A.Archie2, Jenny Tung3, 4, Susan C.Alberts4, Courtney L.Fitzpatrick1.

1Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.2University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.3Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig Germany.4Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Abstract


In primates that exhibit ovarian cycling, females experience their first cycle at menarche and achieve reproductive maturity several months or years later, when they conceive their first infant. These two milestones are important metrics of development, and the adaptive significance of their timing has received moderate attention from researchers. The duration between these milestones, however, is little-studied—although it can vary greatly between females in a single population and may have consequences for lifetime reproductive success. In this project, we seek to understand how the interval between menarche and reproductive maturity (i.e., adolescence) is influenced by environmental and social pressures in wild female baboons living in the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya. First, we measure variation in the duration of adolescence among Amboseli baboon females. Second, we examine the relationships between this interval and several environmental and social variables that have been linked to rates of maturation and reproduction in this population. Finally, we investigate whether a female’s adolescence duration predicts her first infant’s survival to one year of age.

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