Data from: Testosterone positively associated with both male mating effort and paternal behavior in savanna baboons (Papio cynocephalus)

Testosterone (T) is often positively associated with male sexual behavior and negatively associated with paternal care. These associations have primarily been demonstrated in species where investment in paternal care begins well after mating activity is complete, when offspring are hatched or born. Different patterns may emerge in studies of species where investment in mating and paternal care overlap temporally, for instance in non-seasonal breeders in which males mate with multiple females sequentially and may simultaneously have multiple offspring of different ages. In a 9-year data set on levels of T in male baboons, fecal concentrations of T (fT) were positively associated with both mate guarding (“consortship”) — a measure of current reproductive activity — and with the number of immature offspring a male had in his social group — a measure of past reproductive activity and an indicator of likely paternal behavior. To further examine the relationship between T and potential paternal behavior, we next drew on an intensive 8-month study of male behavior, and found that fathers were more likely to be in close proximity to their offspring than expected by chance. Because male baboons are known to provide paternal care, and because time in proximity to offspring would facilitate such care, this suggests that T concentrations in wild male baboons may be associated with both current reproductive activity and with current paternal behavior. These results are consistent with the predicted positive association between T and mating effort but not with a negative association between T and paternal care; in male baboons, high levels of T occur in males that are differentially associating with their offspring.睾酮（Testosterone，T）通常与雄性性行为呈正相关，与父本抚育行为呈负相关。这类关联主要在父本抚育行为始于交配活动完全结束、幼崽孵化或出生之后的物种中得到证实。对于交配投资与父本抚育存在时间重叠的物种，相关研究可能会观测到不同的关联模式——例如在非季节性繁殖物种中，雄性会依次与多只雌性交配，且可能同时拥有多个不同年龄段的后代。本研究依托一项为期9年的雄性狒狒睾酮水平数据集，发现粪便睾酮（fecal Testosterone, fT）浓度与配偶守护（consortship，即当前繁殖活动的衡量指标）呈正相关，同时也与雄性在其社会群体中拥有的未成熟后代数量呈正相关——该指标既是雄性过往繁殖活动的衡量标准，也是其潜在父本行为的指示因子。为进一步探究睾酮与潜在父本行为之间的关联，本研究后续依托一项为期8个月的雄性行为密集观测研究，发现父本个体与幼崽保持近距离接触的概率显著高于随机水平。鉴于已知雄性狒狒会提供父本抚育，且与幼崽的近距离接触有助于这类抚育行为的开展，该结果表明野生雄性狒狒的睾酮浓度可能同时与当前繁殖活动和当前父本抚育行为相关联。上述结果与“睾酮与交配投入呈正相关”的预测相符，但并不支持“睾酮与父本抚育呈负相关”的假设；在雄性狒狒中，睾酮水平较高的个体恰恰会更主动地与幼崽建立关联。