Achievement

Carson Murray (PI) and colleagues have a series of papers demonstrating a ‘right of birth’ for chimpanzee offspring born to high-ranking (elite) mothers. Elite mothers are buffered against stress, particularly social stress (Markham et al. in submission to Animal Behaviour). Being buffered from social stress may allow elite females to ‘choose’ optimal groups for the socialization of their offspring. This may be particularly critical to male offspring since they are more social than females as adults. Our results demonstrate that sex differences emerge early (Lonsdorf et al. in prep) and that affiliative relationships between adult males can ease social stress (Stanton et al. in submission in submission to Hormones and Behavior). A critical maternal effect may therefore be the degree to which a female socializes her offspring, especially males.