Development of sexual behaviour in wild juvenile capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

• Grant number: 23/18141-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Jaroslava Varella Valentova
• Grantee: Juan Caixeta Mendes Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Except for humans, the complexity of animal sexual behavior is still poorly understood, often being reduced to its distal reproductive function. However, there is evidence of a vast repertoire of non-conceptive sexual behavior in many species, including human and non-human primates, denoting social, communicative or even hedonic functions of sex, those being explanations of the proximal level. This project proposes to investigate the development of sexuality in juveniles of Sapajus libidinosus, a neotropical species of wild capuchin monkey, under the perspective of the social learning of sexual behavior hypothesis. For that purpose, we will analyze the sexual behavior contained in video records previously collected by the "focal-animal" method. Frequencies and durations of the sexual behavior of 4 females and 4 males between 24 and 36 months old will be transcribed. We expect that partners and contexts with which sexual behavior occurs will vary through time, and that it will be pointed by behavioral patterns for distinct classes of sex/age. Inter- and intraindividual comparisons will be made in order to understand the differential acquisition of sexual patterns for certain classes of age/sex, as so to evaluate preferred partners and contexts. Our results will be further compared with other studies on primate sexuality, enhancing the knowledge about ontogeny and diversity of animal sexual behavior as a whole.