SYLVESTER: ALPHA MALE … AND DOTING DAD?

SYLVESTER: ALPHA MALE … AND DOTING DAD?
Researchers have long pondered the question of whether male chimps can recognise their own offspring. New research from Bulindi offers tantalizing evidence that perhaps they can. 
In 2016 BCCP researchers Marie Cibot and Tom Sabiiti witnessed a bizarre incident: Bulindi’s long-term alpha male, Sylvester, carried a newborn baby, Maria, over two consecutive mornings. Adult male chimps can pose a threat to young infants and mothers are understandably very reluctant to allow males possession of their precious babies. But as this remarkable video footage shows, Sylvester was incredibly gentle with little Maria, supporting her carefully, grooming, cuddling and rocking her, and even nesting with her. And on the third morning Maria was safely back with her Mum, Mirinda!
Such behaviour by an adult male chimp has rarely been observed in the wild. Using DNA extracted from fecal samples, researchers Maureen McCarthy and Jack Lester at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology revealed that Sylvester is Maria’s father. Did Sylvester treat Maria so gently because he recognised he was her father?  It seems possible, though we’ll never know for sure!
The article can be accessed here:
Cibot, M., McCarthy, M.S., Lester, J.D., Vigilant, L., Sabiiti, T., & McLennan, M.R. (2019). Infant carrying by a wild chimpanzee father at Bulindi, Uganda. Primates

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