Cycle length flexibility: is the duration of sexual receptivity associated with changes in the social environment?

Abstract

Research in social mammals has revealed the complexity of strategies females use in response to female-female reproductive competition and sexual conflict. One point at which competition and conflict manifests acutely is during sexual receptivity, indicated by swellings in some primates. Whether females can adjust their sexual receptivity from cycle to cycle to decrease reproductive competition and sexual conflict in response to changes in the social environment has not been tested. As a first step, this study explores whether sexual receptivity duration is predicted by the social environment in wild female chacma baboons (Papio ursinus). Given that female baboons face intense reproductive competition and sexual coercion, we predicted that: females could shorten the duration of their sexual receptive period to reduce female-female aggression and male coercion or increase it to access multiple or their preferred male(s). We quantified 157 ovulatory cycles from 46 wild females living in central Namibia recorded over 15 years. We found no support for our hypothesis; however, we found a negative correlation between maximal-swelling duration and group size, a proxy of within-group competition. This study provides further evidence that swelling is costly for females as well as a testable framework for future investigations of cycle length manipulation.