World’s Best Dad? Owl Monkeys Win The Title Hands Down

June 14, 2014

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

If you’re last minute shopping for Father’s Day, you’re going to want to put down that ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug. Trust me.

According to Patricia C. Wright of Stony Brook University and the 2014 winner of the Indianapolis Prize – widely regarded as the Nobel Prize for conservation – no matter how devoted you think your father may be as a parent, another clear winner has emerged in the animal kingdom, forever seizing the title of ‘World’s Best Dad’.

A dependent infant owl monkey rides

 comfortably on its father's back. 

Credit: Davalos Owl Monkey Project, 

Formosa-Argentina

Wright, a renowned primatologist, conservationist and author of High Moon over the Amazon: My Quest to Understand the Monkeys of the Night (Lantern Books: 2013) feels her position of expertise allows her to crown the owl monkey (also known as the night monkey) with the lofty title. Unlike other fathers in the animal kingdom that, at best, would be considered dead beats and, at worst, might possibly eat their own offspring given the chance, the owl monkey father takes on the role of primary caregiver to its young, superseding the care and affection of even the mother.

Owl monkey fathers are actively engaged in the rearing of their young, going so far as to carry them almost everywhere, even when being pursued by predators. These, and other insights on the owl monkey familial hierarchy and community were garnered by Wright due to her National Science Foundation-funded years of research in the rainforests of South America.

THIS POPPA AIN’T NO ROLLIN’ STONE

Another supremely interesting trait of the adult male owl monkey is their life-long devotion to their female partner. True monogamy in the wild is an extremely rare behavior. This monogamy was verified by the same style of DNA fingerprinting that is used in our legal system to determine paternity.

This same DNA fingerprinting method was used also to disprove the perceived true monogamy of the elegant swan, long the classic icon of love and fidelity. It turns out swans are actually what is termed ‘socially monogamous’. While forming a long-term pairing with whom they mate and raise young, they will both occasionally mate outside the relationship.

Read more at

Owl monkeys don't cheat

March 2014: True monogamy is rare in the animal kingdom. Even in species that appear to "mate for life," genetic maternity and paternity tests have revealed that philandering often takes place.

Yet a new study by University of Pennsylvania researchers shows that Azara's owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) are unusually faithful. The investigation of 35 offspring born to 17 owl monkey pairs turned up no evidence of cheating.

In addition to this the males were found to be significantly involved in caring for the couple’s young.

"Our study is the first of any primate species, and only the fourth for a pair-living mammal, to show genetic monogamy, or real faithfulness, between partners," said study author Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, an associate professor in Penn Arts and Sciences' Department of Anthropology. "Paternal care in owl monkeys now makes sense. The males are making a huge investment in their own offspring."

The Penn evolutionary anthropologists have been studying a population of these primates in Argentina's Chaco region for 18 years. Previous work had shown that male and female owl monkeys form strong pair-bonds and that males contribute significantly to raising young by carrying them on their bodies, playing with them and feeding them solid foods.

Continued

Owl Monkeys Who 'Stay True' Reproduce More Than Those With Multiple Partners

Jan. 23, 2013 — Breaking up is hard to do -- and can be detrimental to one's reproductive fitness, according to a new University of Pennsylvania study.

Focusing on wide-eyed, nocturnal owl monkeys, considered a socially monogamous species, the research reveals that, when an owl monkey pair is severed by an intruding individual, the mate who takes up with a new partner produces fewer offspring than a monkey who sticks with its tried-and-true partner.

The findings underscore how monogamy and pair-bonds -- relatively rare social formations among mammals -- can benefit certain individuals, with potential implications for understanding how human relationship patterns may have evolved.

Eduardo Fernandez-Duque and Maren Huck report on the research inPLOS ONE. Fernandez-Duque is an associate professor in Penn's Department of Anthropology. Huck completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Fernandez-Duque's laboratory and is now a professor at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom.

Since 1997, Fernandez-Duque and colleagues have monitored an owl monkey population in a portion of Argentina's Chaco region. Their behavioral observations, demographic data and physiological sampling have provided a wealth of information on the animals.

Read more:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130123195256.htm