Complexities of Understanding Female Dispersal in Primates

Abstract

Female dispersal among primates was thought to be rare and thus have ``special'' causality by comparison with male dispersal. We argue that female dispersal is a more common social state option than was previously thought, with a widespread distribution across primate taxa. Dispersal as an outbreeding strategy has also long been linked to life history traits -- and specifically the rates of maturation within each sex, which are themselves linked to mortality risks and reproductive rates. Thus an understanding of key features of life history (reproductive energetics and mortality risks), and how individuals of the same sex manage their competitive and cooperative within-group relationships, allows us to model when female dispersal will be the most probable social state. In addition, when fission--fusion sociality allows females to manage their social lives, reducing resource and reproductive competition while maximising access to positive social networks and helpers, it will be associated with female dispersal as an effective tool for female choice of social companions.