Nepotism natural to males – research

NEPOTISM comes naturally to males, according to University of Cape Town research.

Martha Nelson-Flower spent five years observing desert-dwelling southern pied babblers in the Kalahari, discovering that male birds favour their sons and alienate stepsons.

“Nepotism has likely played a vital role in the evolution of family life in this species,” Nelson-Flower, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, said.

Her findings were published in the journal Biological Letters.

The black-and-white southern pied babbler, found in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, lives in groups of up to 14, and chicks are raised by both parents as well as other adult birds.

Each group’s dominant male appears to decide which of the subordinate males to tolerate, and Nelson-Flower found that subordinate males spend less time in a group if they are unrelated to the dominant male.

Subordinate male birds were pushed out of the group by their stepdads or, in some cases, their brothers-in-law, and forced to live alone or join other groups as subordinates.