Articles | Volume 3, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-3-41-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-3-41-2016
Short communication
 | 
16 Aug 2016
Short communication |  | 16 Aug 2016

Female infanticide and female-directed lethal targeted aggression in a group of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta)

Klara Kittler and Silvio Dietzel

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Cited articles

Andrews, J.: Infanticide by a female black lemur, Eulemur macaco, in disturbed habitat on Nosy Be, North-Western Madagascar, Folia Primatol., 69, 14–17, 1998.
Bartlett, T. Q., Sussman, R. W., and Cheverud, J. M.: Infant killing in primates: A review of observed cases with specific reference to the sexual selection hypothesis, Am. Anthropol., 95, 958–990, 1993.
Budnitz, N. and Dainis, K.: Lemur catta: Ecology and behaviour, in: Lemur Biology, edited by: Tattersall, I. and Sussman, R. W., Plenum, New York, 219–235, 1975.
Charpentier, M. J. E. and Drea, C. M.: Victims of infanticide and conspecific bite wounding in a female-dominant primate: A long-term study, PLOS ONE, 8, e82830, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082830, 2013.
Digby, L. J.: Infant care, infanticide, and female reproductive strategies in polygynous groups of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 37, 51–61, 1995.
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Short summary
We report on extremely rare events of group eviction and eventually lethal aggression in a group of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) that were targeted against the two highest-ranking females. These events erupted after an infanticide by the highest-ranking female directed at the offspring of a subordinate. We suggest that this aggressive changeover of power between two matrilines was based on the growing group size and was an act of female reproductive competition during birth season.