Evolution: Being a good dad a valuable strategy

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

A study of gorillas has shown that male gorillas who put energy into caring for infants - even infants that don't belong to them - earn a very valuable reward: lots and lots of sex. Male gorillas engaging in caretaking activity have five times as many children of their own as other gorillas. This contradicts some more basic evolutionary assumptions - that males should not waste energy caring for children when they could instead use that energy spreading their seed. In this case, the contradiction is solved by the fact that being willing to give care apparently makes the males much more likely to reproduce, either thanks to attractiveness or simply through more access to females. It could shed light on the evolution of fathership and the family unit in humans.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/male-gorillas-who-babysit-have-five-times-more-babies

 

[twenty02]

A study of gorillas has shown that male gorillas who put energy into caring for infants - even infants that don't belong to them - earn a very valuable reward: lots and lots of sex. Male gorillas engaging in caretaking activity have five times as many children of their own as other gorillas. This contradicts some more basic evolutionary assumptions - that males should not waste energy caring for children when they could instead use that energy spreading their seed. In this case, the contradiction is solved by the fact that being willing to give care apparently makes the males much more likely to reproduce, either thanks to attractiveness or simply through more access to females. It could shed light on the evolution of fathership and the family unit in humans.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/male-gorillas-who-babysit-have-five-times-more-babies

All these diaper changes aren't in vain! Thank God.

 

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

All these diaper changes aren't in vain! Thank God.

You got a reward coming, my friend. A big reward. 4.5 billion years in the making.

 

[twenty02]

You got a reward coming, my friend. A big reward. 4.5 billion years in the making.

Thanks to modern science, my reward won't include the add-on of even more new babies to care for, like the poor gorilla dads.

 

[sglowrider]

The flip side....

 

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

Thanks to modern science, my reward won't include the add-on of even more new babies to care for, like the poor gorilla dads.

I'm not sure that's a good evolutionary strategy*, but it's definitely good for something.

* NB: Actually, it might be, for reasons the scientific pedants would explain if I didn't have this disclaimer.

 

[Rockfish1]

Without doubting the conjugal benefits for great apes, let me just make the very sappy point that children can be rewarding, even for not so great apes who don't have quite as much promiscuous sex as this study suggests gorillas might have. Which is a nice thing because the great apes seem to have quite a lot more promiscuous sex than would ever have been conceivable for me.

 

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

Without doubting the conjugal benefits for great apes, let me just make the very sappy point that children can be rewarding, even for not so great apes who don't have quite as much promiscuous sex as this study suggests gorillas might have. Which is a nice thing because the great apes seem to have quite a lot more promiscuous sex than would ever have been conceivable for me.

Gorillas are ballers. What can you do? They don't grow the silverback for fashion sense.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

You got a reward coming, my friend. A big reward. 4.5 billion years in the making.

Last I checked, the only rewards for diaper changes are blow outs.

 

[anon_mlxxvlbug9dpa]

Gorillas are ballers. What can you do? They don't grow the silverback for fashion sense.

Today I learned that the Hindus have it wrong. Clearly we want to be reincarnated as gorillas, not cows.