The Well-Dressed Ape by Hannah Holmes

Author:Hannah Holmes [Holmes, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58836-802-7
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

■ THE PROCESS OF PAIR-BONDING

My first serious attempt at forming a pair-bond, let’s see. This is awkward. Let’s call him Homoboy He could, after all, have been anybody—or at least anybody who had the correct body odor, facial bone structure, and degree of bodily symmetry. He must have had enough of those things, because for a while Homoboy took the shape of an obsession in my seventeen-year-old brain.

I’ll defer the mortifying postmortem of this particular pair-bond by considering why it is that humans take only one primary mate at a time. The females of most mammals don’t attempt to pair-bond but have evolved to perform as single mothers instead. Of the species who roam my backyard, none attempts co-parenting of the offspring. The possum is a single mother, as is the gray squirrel. The skunk takes the single route, and so does the raccoon. The deer mouse and the Norway rat, even the deer, moose, and black bears who pass through, all are animals who rendezvous with a mate for a minute or a month, then go their own way.

But for a few species, often those with spectacularly needy offspring, it takes two. It’s a rare lifestyle among the mammals. Only about 5 percent of all mammals form couples—and most of those agree to a contract that lasts for only one year or one brood. So who are these elusive pair-bonders, and why do they do it? We (reputedly) monogamous creatures are unlikely bedfellows. We include a few species of antelope, a sampling of bats, some foxes, a few American monkeys, the South American giant otter, the northern beaver, various seals, and a handful of rabbitlike Central and South American rodents. And us. It’s not a popular lifestyle choice.

And what’s the best explanation for why any creature would attempt to tolerate another creature for an entire breeding cycle, let alone a lifetime? That’s another conundrum. The best guesses include:

Needy offspring: In some species, the young require so much care, for so long, that one parent simply can’t do the job alone.

Territoriality: In species where the male defends a territory, it behooves a female to pair up. That way she (and her offspring) can pillage the resources in his domain without the strife of fighting for them.

Predators: If the female and her offspring are persecuted by predators, then evolution will sometimes promote those males who stick around to help protect their offspring.

Infanticide: In a species where males kill offspring that aren’t their own (mice, lions, chimpanzees, and many others), offspring will repay an attentive father by surviving to tell his genetic tale.

Mate guarding: Because uteruses are a limited resource, a male who monopolizes one can sometimes father more offspring than a male who chases every opportunity but is always in competition with other males.

Efficiency: Migratory birds who nest during the short northern summer can gain a few days for fattening the kids if they forgo the annual mating formalities. Staying hitched saves time.

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