Jansen David J, Warutere J Kinyua, Tung Jenny, Alberts Susan, Archie Elizabeth
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.
Department of Pathobiological Science, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.
Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Jun;292(2049):20250194. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0194. Epub 2025 Jun 18.
Parent-offspring relationships can have profound effects on offspring behaviour, health and fitness in adulthood. These effects are strong when parents make heavy investments in offspring care. However, in some mammals, including several species of carnivores, rodents and primates, fathers live and socialize with offspring, but paternal care is subtle or indirect. Do these limited father-offspring relationships also affect later-life outcomes for offspring? Working in a well-studied baboon population where males contribute little direct offspring care, we found that juvenile female baboons who had stronger paternal relationships, or who resided longer with their fathers, led adult lives that were 2-4 years longer than females with weak or short paternal relationships. This pattern did not differ between females who experienced high versus low levels of early-life adversity; hence, paternal relationships were equally protective in both harsh and benign early environments. Males' relationships were strongest with juvenile females they were most likely to have sired and when males had few mating opportunities. Hence, father-daughter relationships may be constrained by male mating effort. Because survival predicts female fitness, fathers and their daughters may experience selection to engage socially and stay close in daughters' early lives.
亲子关系会对后代成年后的行为、健康和适应性产生深远影响。当父母在后代照料方面投入大量精力时，这些影响会很强烈。然而，在一些哺乳动物中，包括几种食肉动物、啮齿动物和灵长类动物，父亲与后代生活在一起并进行社交，但父性照料很微妙或间接。这些有限的父子关系也会影响后代的晚年生活吗？在一个经过充分研究的狒狒群体中，雄性对后代的直接照料很少，我们发现，与父亲关系更亲密或与父亲生活在一起时间更长的幼年雌性狒狒，其成年后的寿命比与父亲关系薄弱或相处时间短的雌性长2至4年。这种模式在经历了高或低程度早期逆境的雌性之间没有差异；因此，在恶劣和良性的早期环境中，父子关系都同样具有保护作用。雄性与他们最有可能生育的幼年雌性关系最强，并且当雄性的交配机会很少时也是如此。因此，父女关系可能会受到雄性交配努力的限制。由于生存预示着雌性的适应性，父亲和他们的女儿可能会经历选择，以便在女儿的早期生活中进行社交并保持亲密。
