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Bonobo mothers help their sons to have more offspring

Mothers’ presence influences the reproductive success of their adult sons

In many social animal species individuals share child-rearing duties, but new research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, finds that bonobo mothers go the extra step and actually take action to ensure their sons will become fathers. This way bonobo mothers increase their sons’ chance of fatherhood three-fold.

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© Martin Surbeck, Kokolopori Bonobo Research