Is male-infant caretaking related to paternity and/or mating activities in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)?

In species with a promiscuous mating system, the functions of male-infant caretaking remain unclear in the absence of genetic paternity tests. We tested paternal investment and hypotheses concerning reproductive tactics in wild groups of Barbary macaques, including results of genetic paternity tests. Our study revealed that male-infant caretaking was not related to the probability of paternity. In principle, males could use access to females to estimate paternity. However, we found that mating success was not related to paternity, so males could invest in infants that they had not sired, and caretaking of non-offspring was actually observed. Accordingly, males might be 'deceived' with respect to their paternal investment. In that case, one would expect a positive relation between mating success and the subsequent rate of male caretaking of infants. Such a relation is also lacking, leading to comprehensive rejection of the paternal investment hypothesis in Barbary macaques. By contrast, there was evidence that males showing infant care achieved higher mating frequencies than other males with the mothers of the relevant infants. Thus, male Barbary macaques do not show a 'mate-then-care' pattern, but they do exhibit a 'care-then-mate' pattern. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.