QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Juvenile feeding ecology and life history in a neotropical primate, the squirrel monkey. 
Anita Stone, Univ. of Illinois

Q: You said males are submissive to both females and juveniles, but the only
example you gave of this is that males stay away from females and
juveniles.

A: While the males generally avoid females and juveniles (especially juveniles), this was not the sole indicator of subordinance. I determined this based on the outcome of aggressive interactions between males and other age-sex classes. Males generally lost these contests. In fact, males often were chased off by coalitions of females and juveniles.
 
Q: Was there any evidence that the males were 'looking out' for predators or other dangers for the troop?

A:  Perhaps. I am not sure that they are looking out for predators more than other age-sex classes, but they are always on the lookout for "strangers"-- males that may be trying to infiltrate from another group. Males generally chase off these extra-group males. However, sometimes after an intergroup encounter or a predator scare (e.g. a large bird flying through the group), the males would position themselves on the outskirts of the group on very high trees and appeared to be looking out as sentinels. But I don't have quantitative data on this.
 
Q: Was there a difference between male and female juveniles in feeding behavior?

A: Because I could not always reliably sex the juveniles, I did not split up the juvenile data by sex for statistical analyses. However, for the samples that I did try to break down by sex, there was no striking difference.  Given the nature of my hypotheses, I did not have an a priori expectation that male and female juveniles should forage differently. For example, if developmental problems due to inexperience were affecting their behavior, we don't expect that to differ between male and female juveniles. The main factor would be age, not sex.