University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2017 Social and Hormonal Correlates of Life History Characteristics and Mating Patterns in Female Colobus vellerosus Vayro, Josie Vayro, J. (2017). Social and Hormonal Correlates of Life History Characteristics and Mating Patterns in Female Colobus vellerosus (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27809 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3793 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Social and Hormonal Correlates of Life History Characteristics and Mating Patterns in Female Colobus vellerosus by Josie Valerie Vayro A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2017 © Josie Valerie Vayro 2017 Abstract This dissertation uses behavioural and hormonal data to describe female life history characteristics in Colobus vellerosus. It explores female behaviour patterns that may influence female reproductive success, and focuses on the effect of male group membership on female mating behaviour and investment in offspring. My team and I collected behavioural and faecal data between May 2012 and May 2013 at Boabeng- Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, in central Ghana. From June 2013 to September 2013 I extracted female reproductive hormones (progesterone and oestradiol) from the faecal samples at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and mapped the hormone values onto female hormone profiles. I documented ovarian cycle length (24 days), gestation length (mean=168.5 days, range=159-178 days, n = 2), age at first birth (5.87 years, range=4.66-7.08, n=8), and inter-birth interval for females whose infants survived to nutritional independence (mean=16.5 months, range=8.3-24.0 months, n=11) and for females whose infants did not survive to nutritional independence (mean=11.4 months, range=8.0-17.1 months, n=9). I investigated whether or not post-conceptive mating in female C. vellerosus is a by-product of fluctuating and/or elevated oestradiol and progesterone levels during pregnancy, or if it is a result of females' access to multiple males. I found that female progesterone and oestradiol levels increased throughout pregnancy and female mating patterns were associated with elevated progesterone levels. Females directed solicitations significantly differently among group types, and females directed solicitations significantly more in unstable multi-male groups than in stable multi-male groups. Females in stable and unstable multi-male groups copulated more with dominant than non-dominant males. I also investigated if female C. vellerosus stack iii investment in their offspring by conceiving a new offspring while a previous infant is still in nipple contact. I found that eight out of 16 females stacked investment. Females in stable multi-male groups stacked investment significantly more than those in unstable multi-male groups. Females that stacked investment spent a higher proportion of time with an infant in nipple contact than did those that did not stack investment. The combination of behavioural and endocrine data used in this study contributes to a growing body of work describing primate life history variables and mating systems. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the help, support and input of so many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Pascale Sicotte. It is difficult to put into words how much Pascale has contributed to my growth, both professionally and personally. Thank you for teaching me more than I could have imagined, not only about research, writing, and teaching, but also about how to make my way in this intense world of academia. I am also very grateful to my co-advisor Dr. Linda Fedigan for her helpful feedback and guidance over the past years. I am proud to say that I worked with you and to be a small part of the amazing work you have done. I thank my committee members Dr. Susanne Cote, Dr. Mary Anne Katzenberg, Dr. Mary Pavelka, and Dr. Stacey Tecot for serving on my supervisory and examination committees. I am extremely thankful to Dr. Toni Ziegler and Dan Wittwer at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Toni taught me the techniques and theory I needed to carry out and understand endocrinology for this dissertation. I am so grateful for her comments on early versions of my manuscripts as well as her contributions to my professional growth. It was wonderful working with Dan in the lab and I am eternally grateful for his patience and expert knowledge of lab techniques and hormone analysis, as well as his friendship while I was in Madison. This research would not have been possible without funding from the University of Calgary, the Government of Alberta’s Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship, the Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology’s Shelly Saunder’s Award, and Dr. Sicotte’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant (RGPIN/203059- 2012). To all the staff in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, thank you v for your support over the years. Julie Boyd, Monika Davidson, Courtney Wright, and Tracy Wyman you’ve all helped me in so many ways and with so many things that it would be nearly impossible to list them all. To Tak Fung, thank you for always making yourself available to help me understand and run statistics, you are so good at your job and it was a privilege to work with you. This dissertation benefitted immensely from the help, support and input of a number of my peers. To Stephanie Fox, Jeremy Hogan, Urs Kalbitzer, Mackenzie Bergstrom, and Eva Wikberg, thank you all for your support and friendship during the development and execution of this dissertation. I could not have done it without you! To my Canadian research assistants Rustu Attaman, Robert Clendenning, Angela Crotty, and Kira Roberts thank you all for your hard work and friendship in the field, your help and commitment to this project during our time in Ghana made its success possible. And thank you Angela for your continued support and friendship after the field. We learned a lot from each other and I can’t imagine having done it without you. I would like to thank the Ghana Wildlife Division, and the management committee and traditional priests of the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary for permission to conduct this research. I would also like to thank the people of Boabeng and Fiema for allowing me to live and work in your community. I am so grateful to my Ghanaian research assistants, Robert Koranteng and Charles Kodom, for all their hard work, guidance, and friendship. Thank you both for answering my endless questions about Ghana and Ghanaian life, and for welcoming me into your homes and lives. Thank you to Tony Dassa for all your help; working with you was always entertaining. And to Joyce and Diana, and Alfred and Bea, thank you for taking care of, feeding, and loving vi Léola, I could not have done my fieldwork without your daily allomothering. And thank you for taking care of me when I needed it most. To my mother, thank you for being “all the things”. Thank you for your love, emotional and mental support, and academic guidance. Thank you for answering your phone every time I call, and either guiding me or just listening. I could not have done any of this without you; you are the complete package. To my dad, thank you for your love and support. I would like to thank Trish Simmons for taking care of Léola. Thank you for making her part of your family and caring for her like she is your own child. Thank you for the extra hours of love you gave her on those days I needed just a little more work time. And finally, to Léola: Thank you for your patience, strength, and understanding while you embarked on this journey with me. Thank you for trying to understand my perpetual busy-ness and engagement with work. Thank you for travelling the world with me, and watching and learning from each new place we went. Your openness and curiosity inspire me and I hope you continue to appreciate all the world’s beauty and complexity, and continue to ask questions that I find difficult to answer. vii Dedication To Léola: Vires acquirit eundo. I hope that watching me follow and carry out my dreams has instilled in you the knowledge that anything is possible, and the strength to carry out your own dreams. A posse ad esse. viii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................v Dedication ........................................................................................................................ viii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ....................................................................................................................