They studied the behaviour of more than 500 male and females in the four groups, and used genetic tests to determine the paternity of 183 of the baboons, including 23 young infants being cared for by a mother and her chaperone.
Half of all the male chaperones did turn out to be the father of the infant whose mother they befriended.
That is highly surprising in one respect, because each of the females mated with multiple males around the time they conceived. "But of these potential dads, only the genetic dads became friends," says Nguyen.
"To my knowledge, human males cannot tell their own offspring from unrelated offspring, but somehow baboon dads can tell."
But the study revealed an even bigger surprise.
"Half of the friends were not genetic fathers. But these guys weren't even potential fathers, that is, they didn't even mate with the female when she conceived the infant, and these guys didn't receive mating benefits."
Interesting in so many dimensions.
0 comments,:
Post a Comment