| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This project tested whether parasites are a selective force in primate social systems evolution. Experimental nematode parasite removal from a subset of free-ranging female Japanese macaques on Koshima, Miyazaki, showed that parasites are energetically costly; parasite removal allowed high-ranking females to maintain higher body mass than untreated females when food was abundant. More striking, treated females showed higher breeding success than control females, showing that parasites can constrain breeding potential. My previous work, and modeling done during this study, shows that social networks influence infection risk, so these results show for the first time that chronic nematode parasitism can regulate primate populations and affect social structure, making them a selective force in primate social systems evolution.
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