Male Reproductive Success Of Wild Golden Snub-nosed Monkey(Rhinopithecus Roxellana) In The Qinling Mountains

Quantifying the number of offspring produced by an individual is the basis of reproductive success research.The application of paternity test in primates has solved the problem of individual identification and paternity loss in the study of male reproductive success.Currently,research on male reproductive success is relatively rare in primates and needs to be carried out in more species.Golden snub-nosed monkeys(Rhinopithecus roxellana)is one of non-human primates with multilevel society.The multilevel society of golden snub-nosed monkey consists of a breeding band composed by multiple polygamous units and an all-male band formed by several bachelor male members.Previous reports on male reproduction predominantly has described reproductive strategies or social dynamics in terms of behavior and ecology.Specifically,from a genetic perspective,this study aims to explore male reproductive success and interrelated influencing factors in wild golden snub-nosed monkeys.During the study period from September 2018 to June 2019,191 non-damaged samples(69 offspring,68 adult females and 81 possible sires)were collected from a wild R.roxellana population in the Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve,Qinling Mountains.Reproductive success distribution of the male golden snub-nosed monkey was obtained by 19 microsatellite loci genotying of all samples and the paternity identification of all offspring.The results showed that there was extra-unit copulation in the gloden snub-nosed monkeys,with 26% of descendants were sired by bachelor males from all-male band and 10% sired by neighboring resident males.Skew analysis showed that there was a reproductive skew in gloden snub-nosed monkeys [Nonacs' B =0.0135,(CI)0.0041-0.03,P =0.0022],which supposed to be affected by the composition of polygynous unit and multilevel society structure.According to the analysis of the linear mixing model,it was found that the tenure of resident male and the occurrence of replacement had a significant impact on reproductive success of resident males.Both two factors determine the unit stability.Within a certain period of time there was no replacement occurs,the longer tenure of resident male was,the more stable the one-male unit was,and the greater the reproductive success was.According to the life history analysis,the reproductive success of some bachelor males was affected by the female choice and the mechanism of infanticide avoidance.Based on the data of genetics,behavior and life history,this study preliminarily reveals the factors influencing the reproductive success of male golden snubnosed monkeys,providing relevant basis for the research on reproductive strategy and survival mechanism of this species.