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）通常与雄性性行为呈正相关，而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、幼崽孵化或诞生之后的物种中得到证实。在交配投入与父本抚育投入在时间上存在重叠的物种研究中，可能会出现不同的模式，例如雄性会依次与多只雌性交配、且可同时拥有不同年龄多只幼崽的非季节性繁殖物种。在一项针对雄性狒狒睾酮水平的9年数据集研究中，粪便睾酮浓度（fecal Testosterone，fT）与配偶守卫（"consortship"）——当前繁殖活动的衡量指标——以及雄性在其社会群体中拥有的未成熟幼崽数量——过去繁殖活动的衡量指标与潜在父本行为的指示指标——均呈正相关。为进一步探究睾酮与潜在父本行为之间的关联，我们随后借助一项为期8个月的高强度雄性行为研究数据，发现父本个体与幼崽的近距离相处概率显著高于随机预期水平。由于已知雄性狒狒会提供父本抚育行为，且与幼崽的近距离相处能够促进此类抚育行为的开展，上述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及当前父本行为相关联。这些结果与睾酮与交配投入间呈正相关的预测相符，但与睾酮与父本抚育行为间呈负相关的预测不符；在雄性狒狒中，睾酮水平较高的个体，其与幼崽的互动关联程度也更高。