[ETL]

Male gorillas who babysit have five times more babies

By Ann Gibbon
Oct 15, 2018

Author, Ann Gibbons

[humblegunner]

I doubt that male go-rillas have any babies at all.

[z3n]

This is surprising, scientists say, because male caretaking isn’t usually considered a smart reproductive strategy in primate species where access to females is intensely competitive. Instead, researchers thought the most successful strategy for males would be to put more time and energy into outcompeting other males for a mate, as chimps do.

~~~

Something is wrong with this because that was my first thought too. If this premise was true, then the males who help babysit would pass on the paternal behavior and it would become widespread. 5x is no small statistical factor. 5x means it should have perforated into becoming the dominant behavior by now.

I wonder if they did paternity tests to see the the offspring belonged to the male babysitting.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Or maybe it is the male gorilla who have the most offspring who learn to babysit rather than whose who babysit have more offspring.

Pseudo-science at its worst.