14 DAY TRIAL // There's a strong reason to be a good father, especially in the case of the baboons. Even if baboon fathers have several "wives", they will have more grandchildren if they take care of their children while young. The researchers at Duke and Princeton universities describe this finding on a population of Kenyan yellow baboons on a research published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
"In such (polygamic) societies, the scientific dogma has very much been that males do not contribute to their offspring's fitness. They're not supposed to be engaged in a level of care that would make any difference," said senior author Susan Alberts, a Duke associate professor of biology.
Baboon mothers have already been known to deeply impact their daughters' fitness, but this new study has found that fathers spending more time in the company of their young daughters induce them an earlier onset of menstruation.
"A female who can start earlier has a longer reproductive life," said Alberts.
The team has been investigating baboons in the Amboseli basin since 1971. In 2003, Alberts's team had found that yellow baboon males could recognize their own offspring and could display paternal care, supporting their own sons and daughters in disputes between young baboons. The new research comprised 30 years of field observations and genetic information gathered from 118 youthful yellow baboons and their fathers.
In the new research, the authors took into consideration interfering factors, like fitness advantages given to children by high-rank mothers.
"Sons also experienced accelerated maturation if their father was present during their immature period, but only if their father was high-ranking at the time of their birth," wrote the authors.
The male baboon is twice the size of the female, dominating her, still "it's a matriarchal society in the sense that females are the stable members of social groups and their daughters remain with them. For young females, because their major opponents in life are adult females and fellow juveniles, the presence of any adult male may be helpful. But for maturing sons, it may be that it's not really the females they're dealing with; it's the adult males they have to worry about. And in that case, only the presence of a high-ranking dad would be helpful," said Alberts.
Baboons of both genders do not share food after their mothers stop nursing.
"But ties between fatherly presence and early maturity may still stem from enhanced nutrition if fathers reduce any harassment their offspring experience while gathering food. It may also help reduce the stress of everyday life in a baboon group," added Alberts.
