Sex and friendship in baboons

With a New Preface

Bibliographic Data

ID24201709
AuthorsBarbara B Smuts
Year1999
Pages303
Publication date1999-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSex and friendship in baboons (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherHarvard University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
Open LibraryOL22251575M
ISBN9780674802759
LanguageEN
Citations received107

"In the mid-1980s, this book transcended the traditional ethological focus on sexual interactions by analyzing male-female relationships outside the context of mating in a troop of wild baboons. Barbara Smuts used long-term friendships between males and females, documented over a two-year period, to show how social interactions between members of friendly pairs differed from those of other troop mates. Her findings, now enhanced with data from another fifteen years of field studies, suggest that the evolution of male reproductive strategies in baboons can only be understood by considering the relationship between sex and friendship: female baboons prefer to mate with males who have previously engaged in friendly interaction with them and their offspring. Smuts suggests that female choice may promote male investment in other species, and she explores the relevance of her findings for the evolution of male-female relationships in humans."--Jacket.

Animal Sexual Behavior · Baboons · Babouins · Behavior · Comportement sexuel chez les animaux · Comportement sexuel des animaux · Comportement social chez les animaux · Gelber Babuin · Mœurs et comportement · Papio · Pavian · Sex customs · Sexual behavior in animals · Sexualverhalten · Social behavior in animals · Sozialverhalten