Is female infanticide spreading to Karnataka?

Female hierarchy instability, male immigration and infanticide increase glucocorticoid levels in female chacma baboons

Female baboons (Papio hamadryas spp.) must contend with myriad potential stressors on a daily basis. In a previous study on female chacma baboons, Papio hamadryas ursinus, living in the Okavango Delta of Botswana, increases in glucocorticoid (GC) concentrations were associated with female reproductive stage, male immigration and the threat of infanticide. Here, we extend this previous analysis ...

Infanticide as sexual conflict: coevolution of male strategies and female counterstrategies.

One of the earliest recognized forms of sexual conflict was infanticide by males, which imposes serious costs on female reproductive success. Here I review two bodies of evidence addressing coevolved strategies of males and females. The original sexual selection hypothesis arguing that infanticide improves male mating success by accelerating the return of females to fertilizable condition has b...

Sexual conflict. The evolution of infanticide by males in mammalian societies.

Male mammals often kill conspecific offspring. The benefits of such infanticide to males, and its costs to females, probably vary across mammalian social and mating systems. We used comparative analyses to show that infanticide primarily evolves in social mammals in which reproduction is monopolized by a minority of males. It has not promoted social counterstrategies such as female gregariousne...

Infanticide in the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus): occurrence and the effect of familiarity on female infanticide

Impact of Male Infanticide on the Social Structure of Mountain Gorillas

Infanticide can be a major influence upon the social structure of species in which females maintain long-term associations with males. Previous studies have suggested that female mountain gorillas benefit from residing in multimale groups because infanticide occurs when one-male groups disintegrate after the dominant male dies. Here we measure the impact of infanticide on the reproductive succe...