Conditional fetal and infant killing by male baboons
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Sexually selected feticide-the death of infants in utero as a result of male behaviour-has only rarely been described or analysed, although it is presumed to be favoured by the same selective pressures that favour sexually selected infanticide. To test this hypothesis, we measured the frequency of feticide and infanticide by male baboons of the Amboseli basin in Kenya, and examined which characteristics of a male and his environment made him more likely to commit feticide and/or infanticide. We found a dramatic increase in fetal and infant death rates, but no increase in death rates of 1- to 2-year-old individuals, following the immigration of males who stood to benefit from feticide and infanticide. Specifically, fetal and infant death rates were highest following immigrations in which: (i) the immigrant male rapidly attained high rank, (ii) that male remained consistently resident in the group for at least three months, (iii) food availability and social group range overlap was relatively low and (iv) relatively many pregnant females and/or dependent infants were present. Together, these results provide strong evidence for the existence of both sexually selected feticide and infanticide in our population, and they indicate that feticide and infanticide are conditional male behavioural strategies employed under particular circumstances.
Language: English
Topic: Primate Behavior and Ecology
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Relationship Among Demographic, Social and Genetic Structure, Collaborative Research: Relationship Among Demographic, Social and Genetic Structure, Princeton Center for the Demography and Economics of Aging, Epigenetic Consequences of Social Status across the Life Span in a Primate Model, Demography of Sex Differences in Health and Survival, A life course perspective on the effects of cumulative early adversity on health, Collaborative Research: Relationship Among Demographic, Social and Genetic Structure, Collaborative Research: Life in a Changing Environment, LTREB: Long-term behavioral and genetic analyses of a wild primate population, Mechanisms and Consequences of Social Connectedness in a Wild Primate Population, Collaborative Research: Genes, environment and gene expression in a wild primate population, Collaborative Research: Genes, environment and gene expression in a wild primate population, Collaborative Research: Life in a Changing Environment, Infrastructure for the Office of Population Research, CAREER: Understanding socially-structured transmission of infectious agents in wild baboons, Center for Population Health and Aging
OpenAlex ID: W2578130932