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Age as a determinant of reproductive success among captive female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Division of Veterinary Medicine, Tulane National Primate Research Center, 18703 Three Rivers Road, Covington, Louisiana 70433, USA and ¹ Department of Mathematics, Tulane University, 6823 St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to H M Kubisch; Email: mkubisch{at}tulane.edu

A retrospective analysis was performed on fertility outcomes among a colony of captive Indian rhesus monkeys. The analysis covered over 30 years and was based on 1443 females with a total of 11 453 pregnancies. Various determinants of fertility were assessed including birth rates, pregnancy loss, infant survival, interbirth intervals, and interval from last birth to death. Binary variables were analyzed with generalized linear models with random intercepts, while linear mixed models were used for analysis of continuous variables. Age of the dam was a significant factor in determining whether a pregnancy resulted in a birth and whether an infant survived the first 30 days with primiparous or older mothers being less likely to produce an infant surviving to that age. In contrast, sex proved to be the only significant factor in determining whether an infant lived to 1 year, with females being more likely to survive. The interval between births proved to be affected primarily by dam age, while the late death of an infant depressed the likelihood of an extended time interval between her last birth and her death. Overall, these results demonstrate that maternal age contributes significantly to a decline in fertility and older females can live relatively long periods following birth of their last infant.