Primate life history data provide the foundation for comparative analyses that reconstruct life histories for extinct species, help explain dental development, and highlight the peculiar characteristics of our own species. However, most of the data currently available in compilations are outdated. This can lead to contradictory and incorrect results, as we demonstrated for two primate taxa where not even the very basic allometric relationship between life history traits and adult female body mass was recovered if existing compilations were used. To address these issues we began to develop a new database for the order ‘primates’ in May 2014. To eliminate prior copying errors, every entry in the database was located (highlighted) in the original source, dimensions were standardized, and metadata for nutrient availability, offspring survival etc. included. This is the first version of the new compilation intended to provide an overview of most components of the relational database which is written in SQL and uses MariaDB as the management system. It contains values for birth rate, gestation length (for viable infants), inter-birth interval (for surviving infants), litter size, maturation age (mostly age at first reproduction), maximum lifespan, survival (to one year of age), and weaning (mostly the cessation of nipple contact).
COBISS.SI-ID: 38944773
Dispersal, i.e. leaving the natal group and home range and immigrating into a different group, is a critical stage in the life of gregarious organisms and often associated with high risks of mortality. Whether dispersal and immigration into a new group are successful, does not only depend on the survival in the transitional phase when the animal is alone in an unknown territory, but also on the willingness of the new group to accept the newcomer. In this publication we report a failed immigration attempt of an adult male into a group of moustached tamarins, Saguinus mystax and discuss this event in a broader context of behavioral ecology of Callitrichidae and other cooperative breeders.
Data on the size and composition of primate groups plays a crucial role in primate behavioral ecology, they are needed in analyses trying to explain the evolution of sociality and provide the foundation for one of the explanations for the evolution of large brains in primates. However, the current data compilations have a number of shortcomings as they are often not equipped with adequate metadata and entries are sometimes uncritically copied from the original sources or even from other compilations. In this context, my database provides a fresh source of quality data that is adequately equipped with metadata and can facilitate analyses that are in line with the established scientific standards. It contains 4623 entries that cover approximately 240 primate species and subspecies and are based on 646 original sources. When compiling the data I focused on populations in relatively preserved habitats, as only such data can offer insight into the natural state of species. Where possible, I also report the age/sex composition of groups. All entries are equipped with the following metadata: source, sample size, location of the study, duration of observations, habitat quality, definitions of age classes reported in the source, study type (longitudinal/census) and the type of social organization (single-species groups, mixed-species groups, fission-fusion society, multi-level society). This is the first compilation of data on primate group sizes that covers habitat quality and age class definitions among the metadata. By using only original sources I avoided accumulation of errors and neglect of the newer sources, which follows from copying from one compilation to another. All the data were chosen based on well-defined quality criteria and will be proofread and standardized before they are made publically available.