Venus in fur: Female power in mouse lemurs Microcebus Murinus and M. griseorufus

Abstract

Female power is a characteristic peculiar to lemurs, involving dominance in agonistic interactions, and other strategies enabling priority of access to resources. I investigated three strategies of power used by the females of two mouse lemur species, both in captivity and in the wild. In both species, most agonistic encounters involved intersexual dyads, and the females won most of the observed agonistic interactions, expressing unambiguous female dominance. I observed female priority of food access on both species, the males usually avoiding interactions with females on the resources. In 3/4 resource trees and in 4/10 supplemented food sources, the 7 males I observed in the vicinity of the resources (<10 m) never consumed them. Moreover, animals found in sleeping associations (11/14 females and 7/12 males) showed higher body masses, larger home ranges, and higher proportions of fruit foraging than isolated animals.