Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

MATING SEASONALITY IN CASTRATED MALE RHESUS MONKEYS

1975; Bioscientifica; Volume: 43; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1530/jrf.0.0430325

1741-7899

R. P. MICHAEL, M. I. WILSON,

Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior

Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, and Georgia Mental Health Institute, Atlanta, Georgia 30306, U.S.A. (Received 23rd July 1974) Many species of non-human primates have relatively discrete breeding seasons. Under free-ranging conditions, rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) mate most frequently during November to January in North India (Prakash, 1962; Southwick, Beg & Siddiqi, 1965; Lindburg, 1971), during September to November on Cayo Santiago (Conaway & Koford, 1964; Loy, 1971) and during November to December at La Parguera in the Caribbean (Vandenbergh & Vessey, 1968). The mating season of rhesus monkeys in Australian zoos (Hartman, 1932) and on Ilha do Pinheiro, near Rio de Janeiro at latitude 22°S, is displaced by approximately 6 months, suggesting that the photoperiod provides a stimulus. Under free-ranging conditions on Cayo Santiago, males undergo testicular regression and are sexually inactive between February and May, at a time when females are pregnant or lactating (Conaway &