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

In species with a promiscuous mating system, the functions of male-infant c aretaking remain unclear in the absence of genetic paternity tests. We test ed paternal investment and hypotheses concerning reproductive tactics in wi ld groups of Barbary macaques, including results of genetic paternity tests . Our study revealed that male-infant caretaking was not related to the pro bability of paternity. In principle, males could use access to females to e stimate paternity. However, we found that mating success was not related to paternity, so males could invest in infants that they had not sired, and c aretaking 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, leadin g to comprehensive rejection of the paternal investment hypothesis in Barba ry macaques. By contrast, there was evidence that males showing infant care achieved higher mating frequencies than other males with the mothers of th e relevant infants. Thus, male Barbary macaques do not show a 'mate-then-ca re' pattern, but they do exhibit a 'care-then-mate' pattern. (C) 2001 Acade mie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.