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Stay-at-home baboon dads give kids a boost

By Nora Schultz

6 February 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

(Image: Jim Tuten/Animals/Photolibrary)

STAY-AT-HOME dads really do make a difference to the success of their offspring, at least among yellow baboons. Daughters, and some sons, who get help from their fathers enjoy a reproductive head start by maturing quicker, a new study suggests.

Baboons are not known for mild manners and gentle parenting, and males often move on to new groups. But it seems that males do help their young a lot. “Sometimes a male will even adopt an orphaned baby and carry it around for months,” says Susan Alberts of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Alberts and her…

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