Guinea baboons prefer mates with skills

There’s a fascinating dynamic that is happening in the animal kingdom – specifically among Guinea baboons. A recent study shows that female Guinea baboons have a peculiar attraction to males showcasing unique foraging skills.

Experts from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research conducted investigations on two baboon groups in Senegal’s scenic wilderness and one under close observation at Nuremberg Zoo.

The researchers made a discovery that deepens our grasp of animal social behavior: animals are quite aware of their group members’ skills, and they use this knowledge to make social choices.

Attraction based on benefits

The experts trained one male baboon in each group to operate a unique food box. These ‘specialized’ males became the group’s exclusive providers of an additional food source. Curiously, this elevated status attracted the females’ attention.

They spent more time with these special males, groomed them more, and even acted aggressively towards other females in the group.

However, once the food box and the extra food was out of the equation, the females’ enamored behavior diminished. This suggests that the females were acting based on immediate advantages – not on a comprehensive evaluation of the males’ capabilities.

On the other hand, males in the group, despite also gaining from the extra food, showed no significant change in their behavior towards the expert forager. This could hint at lower competition among male Guinea baboons for food sources controlled by their counterparts.

Baboons favor immediate gains

The study sheds light on the pragmatic side of partner selection among Guinea baboons. The choice is not driven by a long-term evaluation of a male’s capabilities, but rather by the immediate benefits they can gain from him.

“Our experiment is the first to identify the type of mechanism, i.e. outcome- or competence-based, underlying skill attribution in a wild non-human primate. As such, our results provide a unique insight into the evolution of complex skill attribution in humans,” said William O-Hearm, the lead author of the study.

Enormous research potential of zoos

Before the field work in Senegal, initial tests were conducted on Guinea baboons at Nuremberg Zoo – one of the few European facilities housing the species and a long-time collaborator of the Primate Research Institute.

The controlled conditions of the zoo made it possible for the researchers to observe baboons closely and test feasible fieldwork ideas.

Lorenzo von Fersen, the zoo’s Curator of Research and Species Conservation, emphasized the significance of conducting research in controlled environments.

“The decisive factor for this study was the opportunity to work with the Guinea baboons at Nuremberg Zoo under controlled conditions. Such research approaches are not only scientifically valuable, but also enrich the animals’ lives by providing them with cognitive challenges that enhance their natural abilities,” said von Fersen.

Jörg Beckmann, biological director and deputy director of the zoo, noted that zoos have enormous research potential and also offer information about their individuals that is often not available in the wild, as well as expertise that is important when working in the field.

Guinea baboons and social intelligence

The findings of this study extend beyond Guinea baboons, offering valuable insights into the evolution of intelligence and social decision-making across species.

By demonstrating that baboons recognize and respond to the skills of their peers, the research supports the idea that social animals – including early human ancestors – may have developed similar cognitive strategies for survival and resource acquisition.

The researchers suggest that such pragmatic decision-making could have played a role in the evolution of human intelligence.

In ancestral human societies, individuals who could assess the competencies of others – whether in hunting, tool-making, or leadership – would have had a distinct advantage in forming beneficial social bonds.

This concept aligns with theories in evolutionary biology that emphasize the role of cooperation, reciprocity, and resource control in shaping complex social structures.

Moreover, this study highlights how non-human primates, like baboons, continue to challenge our understanding of cognition.

As research progresses, scientists hope to uncover even more parallels between human and primate decision-making, further bridging the gap between our species and our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.

The full study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

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