Female gorillas prevent inbreeding by avoiding groups with male relatives

How female gorillas avoid inbreeding Keystone-SDA

Female gorillas do not change groups randomly. They avoid the males they grew up with, thus preventing inbreeding, according to a study by the University of Zurich.

Female gorillas use strategies similar to those of humans in their social behaviour, the University of Zurich (UZH) said in a press release on Wednesday. The authors based their study on data collected over 20 years by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund on several groups of wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

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According to the study, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, gorillas can change groups several times, a process known as dispersal. It plays an important role in preventing inbreeding, improving genetic diversity and maintaining social relationships.

The study conducted by Victoire Martignac, a doctoral student at the UZH, shows that females do not join a community by chance. Previous social experiences play a role in their choice: females avoid males they have grown up with and seek out females they already know.

“Because female mountain gorillas do not know with certainty who their fathers are, they might rely on a simple rule like ‘avoid any group with males I grew up with’ as the likelihood of them being related will be higher than with males they did not grow up with,” explains Martignac, quoted in the press release.

But the presence of other females with whom they have lived before is even more important. These relationships reduce anxiety when entering a new group. And when a female joins a community on the recommendation of a friend, it is also a positive sign for the group as a whole or for the dominant male who leads it.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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