ArticleNature ecology & evolution2023
Same-sex sociosexual behaviour is widespread and heritable in male rhesus macaques.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparing the genomic inbreeding of an isolated rhesus macaque study population to wild populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Drivers of same-sex sexual behaviour.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Ecological and social pressures drive same-sex sexual behaviour in non-human primates.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- The Evolution of Same-sex Sexual Behavior: Using Old Theory to Answer New Questions.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Clarifying the neural circuit mechanisms of spontaneous social behavior in macaques.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2026Article
- A broader cultural view is necessary to study the evolution of sexual orientation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Numerous reports have documented the occurrence of same-sex sociosexual behaviour (SSB) across animal species. However, the distribution of the behaviour within a species needs to be studied to test hypotheses describing its evolution and maintenance, in particular whether the behaviour is heritable and can therefore evolve by natural selection. Here we collected detailed observations across 3 yr of social and mounting behaviour of 236 male semi-wild rhesus macaques, which we combined with a pedigree dating back to 1938, to show that SSB is both repeatable (19.35%) and heritable (6.4%). Demographic factors (age and group structure) explained SSB variation only marginally. Furthermore, we found a positive genetic correlation between same-sex mounter and mountee activities, indicating a common basis to different forms of SSB. Finally, we found no evidence of fitness costs to SSB, but show instead that the behaviour mediated coalitionary partnerships that have been linked to improved reproductive success. Together, our results demonstrate that SSB is frequent in rhesus macaques, can evolve, and is not costly, indicating that SSB may be a common feature of primate reproductive ecology.
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Registered trials
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