Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Paternal Kinship in Olive Baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis)

进化生物学家长期以来一直认为，亲属关系是早期人类社会群体的核心，因此与亲属的关系指导着社会互动。对非人类灵长类动物的比较研究阐明了亲属关系的适应意义。这类研究主要集中在母系亲属身上，部分原因是许多猴子群体是围绕着雌性母猴组成的，部分原因是母系亲缘关系很容易通过对出生的长期观察来确定。然而，当然，个体也可能通过男性有血缘关系，但由于要求通过直接的基因分析来确定父系亲属关系，这种现象及其影响被忽视了。最近开发的非侵入性DNA采样和群体基因分型技术现在可以测试关于父系亲属关系重要性的假设。通过综合行为和遗传数据，本研究解决了以下问题：1)与母系社会中的母系亲属相比，父系亲属之间的社会互动有何不同？(2)与父系亲属交往能获得什么好处？以及3)什么机制允许个人识别父系亲属？一项为期18个月的实地研究对肯尼亚的两组橄榄狒狒(Papio Hamadryas Anubis)进行了研究，将解决这些问题。行为数据通过重点动物采样收集，遗传相关性通过非侵入性粪便采样确定。除了增进我们对父系血缘关系的理解外，这项研究还在两个方面对更广泛的教育和科学倡议做出了贡献。首先，在国外，调查员正在与当地小学合作开发一系列课程，帮助当地肯尼亚青年从科学家的角度了解当地生态和野生动物。其次，她与莱基皮亚野生动物论坛(Laikipia Wildlife Forum)(一个优先考虑拟议研究区域的保护工作的组织)密切合作，提供有关当地野生动物和生态的信息，并与当地社区保持积极关系。

Evolutionary biologists have long argued that kinship was central to early human social groups, whereby relationships with relatives guided social interactions. Comparative studies of nonhuman primates have elucidated the adaptive significance of kinship. Such research has focused predominantly on maternal relatives, partly because many monkey groups are organized around matrilines of philopatric females, and partly because maternal relatedness is readily assigned through long-term observations of births. Certainly, however, individuals may be related through males too, but this phenomenon and its implications have been neglected due to the demands of determining paternal relatedness via direct genetic analysis. Recently developed noninvasive DNA sampling and population genotyping techniques now allow testing of hypotheses about the importance of paternal kinship. Through synthesizing behavioral and genetic data, this research addresses questions such as: 1) How do social interactions vary among paternal kin, compared to maternal relatives in a matrilocal society? (2) What benefits are gained through associating with paternal kin? and 3) What mechanism allows individuals to identify paternal kin? An 18-month field study conducted on two groups of olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) in Kenya will address these questions. Behavioral data are gathered via focal animal sampling, and genetic relatedness is determined via non-invasive fecal sampling. In addition to advancing our understanding of paternal kinship, this research contributes to broader educational and scientific initiatives in two ways. First, while abroad, the investigator is collaborating with the local elementary school to develop a series of lessons to help educate local Kenyan youth about local ecology and wildlife from a scientist's perspective. Second, she works closely with the Laikipia Wildlife Forum (an organization which prioritizes conservation endeavors in the proposed study area), providing information on local wildlife and ecology, as well as maintaining positive relations with the local communities.