International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 27, No. 5, October 2006 ( C  2006) DOI: 10.1007/s10764-006-9077-5 Birth Patterns in Wild and Captive Lion-Tailed Macaques (Macaca silenus) Anantha Krishna Sharma, 1 Mewa Singh, 1,3 Werner Kaumanns, 2 Ellen Krebs, 2 Mridula Singh, 1 M. Ananda Kumar, 1 and H. N. Kumara 1 Received August 10, 2004; revision March 21, 2005; accepted August 22, 2005; Published Online October 18, 2006 During a 5-yr study of lion-tailed macaques in their natural habitat, we found that: 1) most births occurred from January to April (70%) and from Septem- ber to December (19%), showing a bimodal pattern with a major and a minor birth peak; 2) the period of peaks remained the same over 5 yr; and 3) a sim- ilar pattern of birth peaks occurred both in groups in large forest complexes that had overlapping home ranges with other groups and in single groups that were isolated in forest fragments in the same region but with similar eco- logical conditions. The results suggest more of a birth seasonality than mere breeding synchronization in the wild lion-tailed macaques. We also analyzed data on births in captivity in European Zoos for 10 yr. We observed no sea- sonality or peaks in births, and the pattern was the same over the years. Data on rainfall suggest that resource availability in the wild habitat may not be uniform throughout the year; hence, ecological factors may play an impor- tant role in determination of birth patterns in the natural habitats of lion- tailed macaques. KEY WORDS: birth patterns; captivity; forest fragments; lion-tailed macaque; rainforest. INTRODUCTION In many mammalian species, births occur during a short period, gen- erally a few months, with no birth at all during several other months (birth 1 Biopsychology Laboratory, University of Mysore, Mysore 570006, India. 2 Zoologischer Garten Koeln, Riehler Str. 173, 50735 Koeln, Germany. 3 To whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: msingh@psychology.uni-mysore.ac.in. 1429 0164-0291/06/1000-1429/0 C  2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.