Tara Stoinski

They generally will because a lot of times those females might have been their daughter, number one, the dominant male's daughter.

Or the females go through this period of adolescent sterility where they're copulating but they don't actually get pregnant.

And so one strategy a dominant male could have would be to let these younger guys practice when it's not really any cost to him.

Because some males will stay in the group they're born in their whole life.

And that's when you get the Pablo Cansby situation.

And those groups fare really well because if the dominant male dies, you've got someone right there to keep the group together.

Other males strike out on their own.

And we found that what decides whether or not a male will stay is, number one, does he get to practice?

Copulating.

So having that opportunity to practice is important, even if he's not necessarily making babies.

And number two, what I think is really interesting is if his mom is still in the group.

So even these 400-pound males, they don't like hang out with their moms, but their moms are probably a social lubricant for them, like giving them access to the dominant male.

So if you don't have your mom and you're not getting to practice, you're much more likely to say, well, I'm just going to strike out on my own and see if I can attract some females to join me from another family.

And she still has the baby.

And they will hold those babies for long periods of time, like weeks.

Oh, my God.

It makes sense to me that he would go for Ubuzu and help Ubuzu.

Because Ubuzu is now the established leader and Emphora is in this troublesome, he's had bad behavior.

So he's better off aligning himself.

The females have already aligned themselves with Ubuzu.