Father-daughter bonding helps female baboons live longer
Besides humans, very few mammals receive care from their fathers. But when species do, it may benefit their children.
New research from the University of Notre Dame found that the strength of early-life father-daughter relationships predicts meaningful differences in the survival of female baboons.
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study evaluated the impact father baboons may have when they choose to co-reside or interact with their daughters, even though baboon mothers provide all essential care. Until now, the consequences of early-life paternal relationships of offspring were mostly unknown.
“Male baboons tend to reach their peak reproductive success when they’re young adults,” said Elizabeth Archie, professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame and corresponding author of the study. “But once they’ve had a few kids and their condition declines, they sort of slide into ‘dad mode,’ where they don’t disperse as much and they don’t try as hard to mate. Then they have time to invest in and hang out with their kids.”
Looking at 216 female baboons and their fathers in the Amboseli ecosystem of East Africa, the researchers found about a third of the daughters lived in the same social group as their fathers for three years or more. The remaining two-thirds had fathers who either left the group or died within their daughter’s first three years of life.
Researchers also evaluated the grooming habits of juvenile females with their fathers and other adult males, which speaks to the potential strength of father-daughter and other relationships. Archie shared that grooming, which is used for hygiene and social bonding, could be considered the “human equivalent of sitting down, having a cup of coffee and a good chat.”
The study showed daughters who had a strong relationship with their fathers, who co-resided with their fathers for three years or more, or both, lived two to four years longer than females who had weak father-daughter relationships.
“Early life adversity has a powerful effect on lifespan, so this study suggests that having a dad allows females that have experienced other forms of adversity to recover some of those costs,” Archie said. “In a lot of mammals, dads have a reputation of not contributing very much to offering care, but we now know that even these seemingly minor contributions that males are making still have really important consequences, at least in baboons.”
Additionally, father-daughter pairs that lived together for longer had stronger grooming relationships. Meanwhile, strong relationships between juvenile females and other adult males did not predict adult survival. This could be because male baboons sometimes intervene on behalf of offspring in conflicts, protecting their daughters, and even the mothers, from other group members.
“Males seem to sort of expand a child’s social network, as they can be popular members of their social group. Lots of baboons are coming up and interacting with the male. So an infant who’s hanging out near a male has more diverse social interactions than if they’re only hanging out with mom,” Archie said. “And dads can create a sort of safety zone for their daughters.”
Although mammal fathers may not provide much, if at all, to their offspring, Archie believes this study may hold insight into the evolutionary roots of human parental care.
This study is part of the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, which began in 1971 and is among the longest-running primate studies in the world. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the project is co-directed by Archie at Notre Dame, Susan Alberts from Duke University and Jenny Tung at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
“We’re very grateful to the NSF and NIH for funding over the years that has allowed us to sustain this project. We could not have done over 50 years of this project without their support,” Archie said.
In addition to Archie, Alberts and Tung, study co-authors include David Jansen at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and J. Kinyua Warutere at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Archie is affiliated with Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health and Environmental Change Initiative.
Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of media relations, 574-631-2632, brandiwampler@nd.edu
Latest ND NewsWire
- First impressions count: How babies are talked about during ultrasounds impacts parent perceptions, caregiving relationshipPsychologist Kaylin Hill studied the impact of a parent’s first impression of their baby during an ultrasound exam. The words used by the medical professional to describe the baby (positive or negative) influence how the parents perceive their baby, relate to them after they're born and even how that child behaves as a toddler. The research has broad implications for how we train medical professionals to interact with expectant parents, as well as how we care for parents during the perinatal period when they are most susceptible to depression.
- Researchers at Notre Dame detect ‘forever chemicals’ in reusable feminine hygiene productsWhen a reporter with the Sierra Club magazine asked Graham Peaslee, a physicist at the University of Notre Dame, to test several different samples of unused menstrual underwear for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2019, the results fueled concern over chemical exposure in feminine hygiene products — which ultimately ended up in a $5 million lawsuit against the period and incontinence underwear brand Thinx. Then in 2023, the New York Times asked Peaslee to test 44 additional period and incontinence products for PFAS, a class of toxic fluorinated compounds inherently repellent to oil, water, soil and stains, and known as “forever chemicals” for their exceptionally strong chemical and thermal stability. Measurable PFAS were found in some layers of many of the products tested — some low enough to suggest the chemicals may have transferred off packaging materials, while others contained higher concentrations, suggesting the chemicals were intentionally used during the manufacturing process. In the meantime, another group of researchers published a study that found PFAS in single-use period products, leading Peaslee and his lab to widen their investigation into all sorts of reusable feminine hygiene products — often viewed as an eco-friendly option by consumers. Now, the results of that study have been published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
- Smarter tools for policymakers: Notre Dame researchers target urban carbon emissions, building by buildingCarbon emissions continue to increase at record levels, fueling climate instability and worsening air quality conditions for billions in cities worldwide. Yet despite global commitments to carbon neutrality, urban policymakers still struggle to implement effective mitigation strategies at the city scale. Now, researchers at Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, the College of Engineering and the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society are working to reduce carbon emissions through advanced simulations and a novel artificial intelligence-driven tool, EcoSphere.
- Notre Dame Lead Innovation Team partners with local WIC program to identify, prevent lead poisoning in childrenB.A.B.E. store “shoppers” now have something new to help their families: free lead screening kits offered by the University of Notre Dame’s Lead Innovation Team.
- Vatican honors Martin and Carmel Naughton with papal awardThe late Pope Francis, in one of his last acts, conferred the honour of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great upon Carmel and Martin Naughton, Trustee Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. The papal honor is in recognition of the Naughtons’ outstanding philanthropy in the areas of education and the arts, particularly in the provision of philanthropic support and scholarships to Catholic education at the University of Notre Dame and Kylemore Abbey, and in their transformative contributions to higher education in Ireland.
- Brain tumor growth patterns may help inform patient care managementAssistant Professor Meenal Datta (University of Notre Dame/Wes Evard) A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston University has developed a technique for measuring a brain tumor’s mechanical force and a new model to estimate how much brain tissue a patient has lost.
