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. 2019 May 20;29(10):R354-R355.
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.040.

Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos but not chimpanzees

Martin Surbeck  1 , Christophe Boesch  2 , Catherine Crockford  2 , Melissa Emery Thompson  3 , Takeshi Furuichi  4 , Barbara Fruth  5 , Gottfried Hohmann  2 , Shintaro Ishizuka  4 , Zarin Machanda  6 , Martin N Muller  3 , Anne Pusey  7 , Tetsuya Sakamaki  4 , Nahoko Tokuyama  4 , Kara Walker  7 , Richard Wrangham  8 , Emily Wroblewski  9 , Klaus Zuberbühler  10 , Linda Vigilant  2 , Kevin Langergraber  11
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Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos but not chimpanzees

Martin Surbeck et al. Curr Biol. .

Abstract

In many group-living mammals, mothers may increase the reproductive success of their daughters even after they are nutritionally independent and fully grown [1]. However, whether such maternal effects exist for adult sons is largely unknown. Here we show that males have higher paternity success when their mother is living in the group at the time of the offspring's conception in bonobos (N = 39 paternities from 4 groups) but not in chimpanzees (N = 263 paternities from 7 groups). These results are consistent with previous research showing a stronger role of mothers (and females more generally) in bonobo than chimpanzee societies.

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Conflict of interest statement

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Observed average likelihood of a male to sire offspring in the presence and absence of their mothers in the group.
Bonobos are represented in black and chimpanzees in grey. Circle sizes represent the number of offspring. The generally higher likelihood of a male to sire a given offspring in bonobos is due to the smaller number of males in the group compared to chimpanzees.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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