Paternal effects on offspring fitness in a multimale primate society

doi:10.1073/pnas.0711219105

Paternal effects on offspring fitness in a multimale primate society

*Department of Biology, Duke University, P.O. Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708;
^‡Zoological Society of San Diego, Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, P.O. Box 120551, San Diego, CA 92112-0551;
^§Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
^†Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5175, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France; and
^¶Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

Contributed by J. Altmann, November 28, 2007 (received for review October 16, 2007)

Abstract

When females mate with multiple males, paternal care is generally expected to be negligible, because it may be difficult or impossible for males to discriminate their own offspring from those of other males, and because engaging in paternal care may reduce male mating opportunities. Consequently, males in multimale societies are not predicted to provide direct benefits to their offspring. We have recently demonstrated, however, that males in a typical multimale primate society (yellow baboons, Papio cynocephalus) discriminate their own offspring from those of other males and provide care to them in the form of repeated support during agonistic encounters. This observation raises the question of whether fathers enhance offspring fitness in this species. Here we use 30 years of data on age at maturity for 118 yellow baboons with known fathers. We show that the father's presence in the offspring's social group during the offspring's immature period accelerated the timing of physiological maturation in daughters. Sons also experienced accelerated maturation if their father was present during their immature period, but only if the father was high ranking at the time of their birth. Because age at reproductive maturity has a large impact on lifetime reproductive success, our results indicate a direct effect of paternal presence on offspring fitness. This relationship in turn suggests that the multiple roles that males play in multimale animal societies have not been sufficiently examined or appreciated and that paternal effects may be more pervasive than previously appreciated.

Footnotes

^‖To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: altj{at}princeton.edu or alberts{at}duke.edu
Author contributions: M.J.E.C., J.A., and S.C.A. designed research; M.J.E.C., R.C.V.H., J.A., and S.C.A. performed research; M.J.E.C. and R.C.V.H. analyzed data; and M.J.E.C., R.C.V.H., J.A., and S.C.A. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.