ETHOLOGY: Male post-ejaculatory mounting in the ring-tailed lemur: A behavior solicited by females?

Wiley-Blackwell — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:09:00 +0000

Male mate guarding can take many forms but often involves aggression toward male conspecifics and continued proximity with a female. Parga, J. A. (2010), Male Post-Ejaculatory Mounting in the Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta): A Behavior Solicited by Females? (Ethology, 116: 832–842. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01797.x, view online ) describes a previously undocumented behavior in a promiscuous primate, the ring-tailed lemur: post-ejaculatory (PE) mounting . PE mounting was documented across eight mating seasons in a ring-tailed lemur colony on St. Catherines Island (SCI), USA. During PE mounting, a male remounts a female following ejaculation and clasps her midsection as if to mate again, but copulation does not occur.This is an interview with the study's author, Joyce A. Parga, about her hypothesis on PE mounting: that females can solicit this male behavior.