New study has revealed that infanticide occurs largely in mammals, and is very common among them. Scientists had set out to identify if there exists any sort of common lines between mammals and infanticide. The researchers examined around 260 mammal species only to find out that 119 of the 260 species practice infanticide. Also, they had observed 141 species which do not, and only included those observations which confirmed a kill. Now this study also proved that infanticide is not necessarily only exclusive to males, but when females do it is probably more likely.
A zoologist, who practices in the university of Cambridge Dieter Luxas and a behavioral ecologist from the French National Centre, which deals with various scientific researches, Elise Huchard set out on these experiments. “Infanticide is probably the most extreme manifestation of sexual conflict in mammals, with a major fitness cost for mothers who lose their offspring, in which they have already invested lots of energy,” says Huchard. They made all comparisons ranging from social structures and also mating behaviours, to find a pattern of similarity. The research stated that most of the infanticide is committed by males. Authors have also stated that, “Selection for larger testicles, which describe in their paper, is a male counter-strategy to that female counter-strategy, which gives you an idea of how dynamic and complicated evolution of reproductive strategies can be.”
Females have noticeably developed some other strategies to combat infanticide, such as monogamy. This fact was stated in the study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy. The researchers have even found out that some of the females even seem to do the polar opposite in an effort to save a baby. They however cannot understand what one sex is doing without also taking into account what has been going on in the other.