When meat doesn't matter: Female Guinea baboons do not prefer males who are better at acquiring or sharing meat

Meat is a rare and highly prized resource for wild guinea baboons (papio papio). Yet, contrary to long-standing assumptions based on human hunter-gatherer societies, a new study by the german primate center - leibniz-institute for primate research (dpz) now reveals that female guinea baboons do not preferentially choose males who are more skilled at acquiring meat as their mates. The research team led by william j. O'hearn (dpz & university of exeter, uk) additionally shows that female guinea baboons are less dependent on their primary male for access to meat than previously thought after documenting the first-ever case of female-initiated prey capture. The results, now published in the american journal of biological anthropology, throw new liht on the evolutionary origins of meat provisioning as a male quality signal in primates.