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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on July 7, 2004
Behavioral Ecology 2005 16(1):106-113; doi:10.1093/beheco/arh120
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Behavioral Ecology vol. 16 no. 1 © International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2005; all rights reserved.

Primate copulation calls and postcopulatory female choice

Dario Maestripieri and James R. Roney

Animal Behavior Research Group, The University of Chicago, 5730 S. Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Address correspondence to D. Maestripieri. Email: dario{at}uchicago.edu.

Females in some species of Old World monkeys and apes vocalize after copulation, but the function of these vocalizations is not clear. In this article, we examine the hypothesis that copulation calls are a form of postcopulatory female choice. According to this hypothesis, copulation calls are honest signals of fertility (i.e., ovulation) that are used by females to encourage mate guarding by their preferred mating partners and reduce the likelihood of sperm competition. Evidence in favor of this hypothesis is reviewed and discussed in relation to other hypotheses. We suggest that the evolution of female copulation calls in primates is linked to the evolution of other female mating signals such as exaggerated sexual swellings, the potential for sperm competition, and the opportunity for precopulatory female mate choice.

Key words: copulation calls, female choice, mating, primates, sexual selection, sperm competition.


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D. Pfefferle, K. Brauch, M. Heistermann, J. K. Hodges, and J. Fischer
Female Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) copulation calls do not reveal the fertile phase but influence mating outcome
Proc R Soc B, March 7, 2008; 275(1634): 571 - 578.
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