Migration

Primate societies are not static. Group composition changes due to births and deaths, and also by emigration and immigration of individuals between different groups. These transfers, while considered costly for the individual, have important implications for the individual itself and the population as a whole. While, generally speaking, dispersal is male-biased in strepsirrhine and catarrhine primates and female-biased in platyrrhines, variations even between different populations of the same species become increasingly apparent. This indicates that dispersal is a conditional strategy that depends on numerous external and internal proximate factors, as well as individual cost–benefit calculations. Although the advent of more advanced molecular techniques has started to provide more insights into dispersal patterns, the life of dispersing floaters remains a challenging topic, but is fundamental in order to not only understand the general behavioral ecology and evolution of a species but also help evaluate the viability of populations.