Sexual behavior of group-housed stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides): temporal, demographic and sociosexual...

A detailed quantitative analysis of sexual behavior in a social group of captive stumptail macaques was conducted. The distribution of copulations both over days and among animals, and the relationships between copulation and various sociosexual patterns were investigated. Copulations occurred erratically over days and were preferentially directed to a small minority of females. Most patterns of sociosexual behavior were at their highest rates during actual copulatory episodes, others occurred independent of ejaculation. It is suggested that the relationships between variables such as social rank, age and parity and sociosexual patterns are quite flexible and probably vary with the species, testing conditions and demographic make-up of the group.