Young male chimpanzees from Tanzania take an interest in newborns Danita Delimont/Alamy
It鈥檚 good to be social. Male chimpanzees with more friends are more likely to father offspring 鈥 and there are at least three ways this can occur.
鈥淎nimals with more social bonds or stronger social bonds have higher reproductive success,鈥 says Joseph Feldblum at the University of Michigan. 鈥淲e tried to find out how that might happen.鈥
His team focused on chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. They live in groups of around 25 individuals, which are dominated by a powerful alpha male. The alpha sires most of…
