Latest news with #baboons
France 24
08-07-2025
- Science
- France 24
Alpha males are rare among our fellow primates: scientists
"For a long time we have had a completely binary view of this issue: we thought that a species was either dominated by males or females -- and that this was a fixed trait," Elise Huchard, a primatologist at the University of Montpellier in France, told AFP. "Recently, this idea has been challenged by studies showing that the truth is much more complicated," said the lead author of a new study published in the journal PNAS. The French-German team of researchers combed through scientific literature for interactions between male and female primates that revealed their hierarchical relationships. These included aggression, threats and signs of dominant or submissive behaviour, such as when one primate spontaneously moved out of the way of another. Over five years, the team gathered data from 253 populations across 121 primate species, including a range of monkeys, lemurs, tarsiers and lorises. They found that confrontations between members of the opposite sex were much more frequent than had been previously thought. On average, more than half of these interactions within a group involved a male and a female. Males clearly dominating females, which was defined as winning more than 90 percent of these confrontations, was only observed in 17 percent of the populations. Among this minority were baboons and chimpanzees, which are the closest living relatives to humans. Clear female domination was recorded in 13 percent of the primate populations, including lemurs and bonobos. This meant that for 70 percent of the primates, either males or females could be at the top of the pecking order. Battle of the sexes When male domination was particularly pronounced, it was usually in a species where males have a clear physical advantage, such as bigger bodies or teeth. It was also more common among ground-bound species, in which females are less able to run and hide compared to their relatives living in the trees. Females, meanwhile, tended to dominate over societies when they exerted control over reproduction. For example, the genitals of female baboons swell when they are ovulating. Males jealously guard females during these few days of their menstrual cycle, making sure that other competitors cannot mate with them. However in bonobos, this sexual swelling is less obvious. "Males never know when they are ovulating or not. As a result, (the female bonobos) can mate with whoever they want, whenever they want, much more easily," Huchard said. Female dominance is also more common when females compete with each other, and when males provide more care for the young. In these species, females are often solitary or only live in male-female pairs. This means that monogamy is closely linked to female dominance. Can these results be extrapolated to our own species? There are a great many differences between humans and our fellow primates, Huchard emphasised. But we would broadly fall into the middle category in which neither males nor females always have strict dominance over the other. "These results corroborate quite well with what we know about male-female relationships among hunter-gatherers, which were more egalitarian than in the agricultural societies that emerged later" in human history, Huchard said.
CTV News
22-06-2025
- Science
- CTV News
Why baboons walk in line: It's not survival – its friendship, scientists say
A new study is challenging long-held assumptions about animal movement, suggesting that baboons don't march in line to protect themselves or to follow a leader, but rather, to stay close to their friends. Published in Behavioral Ecology, the peer-reviewed study, led by researchers at Swansea University in the U.K., found that social bonds – not strategy – best explain why wild chacma baboons form consistent travel lines during group movements. In other words: the animals are walking in line because they just want to hang out with their friends. The researchers tracked 25 wild baboons in South Africa over 36 days, using high-resolution GPS collars to record 78 travel progressions, also known as 'lines,' formed as the baboons moved across the landscape. The team tested four potential patterns: predator avoidance, food competition, dominance hierarchy, or social relationships. The data pointed to the fourth option. Julie Teichroeb, primate researcher and associate professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, says this doesn't come as a surprise. 'For a long time, it was this idea that big males, especially in baboons, are at the head and back of the group, protecting everyone within the group,' Teichroeb told in an interview Thursday. 'I'm glad someone showed it's not a selected kind of organization. They leave in groups because they're hanging out together.' Teichroeb said that despite the limited study duration, multiple movements were observed each day and a pattern was spotted quickly. This finding reframes how scientists understand certain group behaviours in the animal kingdom. Traditionally, linear movement in animals, especially in open terrain, has been seen as a defensive formation, with stronger members shielding the more vulnerable. But in this case, researchers found no evidence that the line formation had a survival function. 'It shows how important these social bonds are. The immediate individuals around (them) is really important,' Teichroeb said. Teichroeb says the idea of travel lines is visible in other primate species, like Vervet monkeys, which Teichroeb studied in Uganda. 'Groups of related females and their kids, they're all leaving around the same time, and they're sort of clustered together,' she said. 'Social spandrel' The researchers proposed that the baboons' behaviour is an example of 'social spandrel' – a concept borrowed from evolutionary biology and architecture. A 'spandrel' refers to a feature that arises as a byproduct of something else, rather than a functionally selected trait. In this case, travel lines are an incidental result to strong social bonds. Social relationships serve as an evolutionary function, the study suggests. Teichroeb references the critical approach of evolutionary biologists like Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin, who argued that not everything has an evolutionary purpose and many things are a secondary byproduct of something else. The study also found that dominant and well-connected baboons consistently held central positions in the line – not because they were leaders or protectors – but because they simply had more social connections, and those connections pulled them inward from multiple directions. Subordinate or less social baboons tended to be at the edges. As for the methodology, Teichroeb said for these studies, GPS devices can give detailed, second-by-second updates on primates' movements. 'It's a lot more than we can do in the field with our eyes,' Teichroeb added. She also warned that studies that heavily rely on GPS points and don't follow animals suffer from a lack of context in social cues and faces. The findings contribute to a growing field of social movement ecology, which studies how social relationships shape group dynamic in animals. While many species move in coordinated ways for protection or efficiency, the study underscores the need to look deeper into the social drivers of those patterns. It also raises the question about how friendship and social bonding influence animal behaviour in subtle ways, including how groups form, travel and make collective decisions. As for further studies, Teichroeb said finding out if this is a species-wide pattern would be insightful. 'It would be neat to see if this is something that emerges in matrilineal species that are really tight female kin groups, or if it emerges in more loosely bonded species that don't have kinship within the group,' Teichroeb suggested. In the end, researchers hope their work will help scientists rethink assumptions about the 'why' behind animal movement. In some cases, the answer may not be life-or-death, just heart-to-heart.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer
If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase 'deadbeat dads' might be called for, such is the primate's relatively limited involvement in raising their young. But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults. 'Among primates, humans are really unusual in how much dads contribute to raising offspring,' said Prof Elizabeth Archie, co-author of the research from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. 'Most primates' dads really don't contribute very much, but what the baboons are showing us is that maybe we've been under-appreciating dads in some species of primates.' In the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Archie and colleagues reported how they studied wild baboons in Kenya, focusing on 216 females fathered by 102 males, as confirmed by genetic data. The team studied the frequency of grooming interactions between fathers and daughters during the first four years of the females' lives, as well as recording the total number of days fathers and daughters lived in the same group over that period. They then tracked how long the daughters lived as adults. Archie said the team focused on female offspring because males often moved to other social groups as adults, making it difficult to track how long they live. The researchers found that female baboons who, during the first four years of their life, lived in the same group as their fathers for longer and spent more time grooming with them, lived two to four years longer as adults than those who experienced weaker relationships with their dads. If only one of the two occurred, an increase of about two to three years was found, Archie added. 'A typical lifespan for a female baboon, if she reaches adulthood, [is] 18 years,' she said, noting that females tended to have offspring every 18 months or so. 'So living two to three years longer would allow her time potentially to have another kid.' That, Archie added, might provide an incentive for fathers, given males were less able to fight others for mates as they get older. 'They can no longer compete for females, but what they can do is help their daughters,' said Archie. 'And if their daughters live a little bit longer, then the fathers will pass on more genes and have higher fitness because their daughters are living longer and having more kids.' The researchers found that strong relationships between young females and adult males in general, or with males who were not their fathers, was not associated with an increase in females' survival as adults. Archie said it was not yet clear why the strength of early-life relationships between daughters and fathers might affect females' survival as adults, but said a number of mechanisms could be at play. Among them, she suggested fathers were more likely to step in should their daughters get into fights, or by sheer intimidation create a 'zone of safety' around them so they were less likely to have food stolen or be injured or harassed – helping them grow into healthier adults. But, Archie noted, there was another possibility. 'Maybe it is just that healthy daughters have good relationships with their fathers, and they also live longer,' she said.
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Female baboons with strong relationship to fathers found to live longer
If male baboons were subject to the same kind of cultural commentary as humans, the phrase 'deadbeat dads' might be called for, such is the primate's relatively limited involvement in raising their young. But a study suggests that even their little effort might go a long way, with female baboons who experience a stronger relationship with their fathers when young tending to live longer as adults. 'Among primates, humans are really unusual in how much dads contribute to raising offspring,' said Prof Elizabeth Archie, co-author of the research from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. 'Most primates' dads really don't contribute very much, but what the baboons are showing us is that maybe we've been under-appreciating dads in some species of primates.' In the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Archie and colleagues reported how they studied wild baboons in Kenya, focusing on 216 females fathered by 102 males, as confirmed by genetic data. The team studied the frequency of grooming interactions between fathers and daughters during the first four years of the females' lives, as well as recording the total number of days fathers and daughters lived in the same group over that period. They then tracked how long the daughters lived as adults. Archie said the team focused on female offspring because males often moved to other social groups as adults, making it difficult to track how long they live. The researchers found that female baboons who, during the first four years of their life, lived in the same group as their fathers for longer and spent more time grooming with them, lived two to four years longer as adults than those who experienced weaker relationships with their dads. If only one of the two occurred, an increase of about two to three years was found, Archie added. 'A typical lifespan for a female baboon, if she reaches adulthood, [is] 18 years,' she said, noting that females tended to have offspring every 18 months or so. 'So living two to three years longer would allow her time potentially to have another kid.' That, Archie added, might provide an incentive for fathers, given males were less able to fight others for mates as they get older. 'They can no longer compete for females, but what they can do is help their daughters,' said Archie. 'And if their daughters live a little bit longer, then the fathers will pass on more genes and have higher fitness because their daughters are living longer and having more kids.' The researchers found that strong relationships between young females and adult males in general, or with males who were not their fathers, was not associated with an increase in females' survival as adults. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Archie said it was not yet clear why the strength of early-life relationships between daughters and fathers might affect females' survival as adults, but said a number of mechanisms could be at play. Among them, she suggested fathers were more likely to step in should their daughters get into fights, or by sheer intimidation create a 'zone of safety' around them so they were less likely to have food stolen or be injured or harassed – helping them grow into healthier adults. But, Archie noted, there was another possibility. 'Maybe it is just that healthy daughters have good relationships with their fathers, and they also live longer,' she said.
