2 ms·
Male baboons with female friends live longer
- seesawtron 6y agoThe living "longer" effect is only increased by 28% so one should take this with a grain of salt.
- belorn 6y agoBaboons is a classic tournament species where the primary cause of death for males is other males. The primary cause of stress is directly linked to social competition and the primary factors to reduce stress are: Knowing what is and isn't a social challenge, knowing if a fight was won or lost, and if lost having access to cooping mechanisms. It is the later that would correlate to having female friends, as male baboons almost never groom and consolidates an other male when he has lost a fight. An other related aspect is that female baboons has been observed as being more willing to groom a male who has lost a fight if he was the one being attacked rather than the attacker. If we combine the two aspects with the result of the article I would suggest a simple explanation. Male baboons with lower stress and lower levels of aggression also live longer. I vague remember other studies finding the same results.