Abstract
Dominance hierarchies are fundamental for understanding the social structure of primate groups. Traditionally, primatological research has focused on female-female interactions to figure out aggression patterns. This approach, centered on female philopatry and food competition among females, has often neglected intersexual interactions and typically examined male and female dominance hierarchies independently, despite beloging to the same social group. Recent studies suggest that intersexual dominance relationships may significantly affect group dominance dynamics, challenging the assumption that males in sexually dimorphic species dominate females. In this study, we examined the effect of intersexual interactions on dominance hierarchies and social structures across four macaque groups (Macaca mulatta n = 11, Macaca fascicularis n = 11, Macaca sylvanus n = 23, and Macaca tonkeana n = 19) living in semi-free ranging conditions. These species were selected for their pronounced sexual dimorphism and wide range of aggressive interactions across different social styles, enabling the assessment of the importance of intersexual interactions. We compared aggressive behavior patterns in the four groups taking into account female–female interactions only versus interactions between all group members (i.e., female–female, female–male and male–male relationships). Analysis of aggressive interactions between all group members showed that groups with a higher proportion of males exhibited smoothed measures of aggressive behavior patterns, resulting in more egalitarian dominance dynamics. Our results suggest that, at least in semi-free ranging groups of macaques, intersexual interactions play a crucial role in shaping aggressive behavior patterns and should be considered when assessing dominance hierarchies.
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The datasets during and/or analysed during the current study will be available upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the staff at the Centre de Primatologie de l’Université de Strasbourg and Silabe (https://www.silabe.com/) for supporting and facilitating our research, as well as the field work conducted by Mathieu Legrand and Marc Joosten. We would also like to thank to Vicenç Quera (University of Barcelona) and Sébastien Ballesta (University of Strasbourg) for their comments, which helped us improve our manuscript.
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RD conceived the idea, developed methodology, performed statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript, HM and FSB technical and scientific support and manuscript revision, LM, MO and RD fieldwork. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dolado, R., Meunier, H., Mármol, L. et al. Male influence on patterns of aggressive behavior in semi-free ranging macaques. acta ethol 29, 30 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-026-00503-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-026-00503-4
