Silly embedded picture but a decent article.
Frodo, a large-bodied chimpanzee with a recognisable grey streak, would later become the alpha male of his group in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park. The primatologist Jane Goodall called him a "real bully". She had even predicted his rise back in 1979, writing: "In about twenty years one of these two brothers probably will become the alpha."
Frodo is an extreme example. In his prime he was a ferocious hunter of monkeys, but also killed several other chimpanzees. He even snatched and killed a human child.
Maestripieri argues that bullying helps dominant animals to intimidate their subordinates, and that this has clear evolutionary benefits. It ensures that the dominant individuals have better access to food and to the opposite sex. "The more a female is bullied by a particular male, the more that male gets to mate her. Sad but true," says Wrangham. "And we know it leads to him having more babies with her."
However, bullying is not the only successful route to the top. Frodo's brother Freud was leader before being ousted by Frodo, and he had a much more peaceful approach to leadership. In particular, Freud would groom others to form coalitions, something Frodo never did.
In 2002, after five years of ruling, he [Frodo] became sick and weak. The cause was unknown. Noticing his reduced strength, the other males immediately attacked him. Frodo spent the subsequent months alone, in exile. When he returned to his group he was demoted to a very low rank. He died in 2013, possibly from violent attack. "In my experience the males who get there by bullying often end very badly," says de Waal. "In captivity they get attacked and we need to take them out. In the wild they get attacked and barely survive, or they get marginalised. The bullies are not very popular."
Nevertheless, from an evolutionary point of view this does not matter. Frodo fathered many offspring, and that means his genes – with whatever predispositions towards bullying they carried – have been passed on.
Evolution sucks.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160822-why-bullying-is-such-a-successful-evolutionary-strategy
Well, that article was appallingly poor hack journalism, Melissa.
ReplyDeleteThere is no legal definition of bullying. The UK government defines it as repeated behaviour with the "intent to hurt someone either physically or emotionally".
That there, from the government, looks a bit like a legal definition, Melissa.
And anyway, as Dennett et al have clearly shown, altruism is a far superior evolutionary strategy.
ReplyDeleteNah, you can't call it hack journalism. The government can define anything it likes, enshrining it into law is something else. The point is not whether bullying is a good thing (it clearly isn't) or if it's the most successful evolutionary strategy (debatable) but why evolution ever favours it at all (which, like it or not, it clearly does).
ReplyDeleteThe thing about evolution is that it doesn't care about anything except spreading genes to the next generation. If short-term gains are enough to do that, then so be it.
Rhys Taylor I can. I did.
ReplyDelete