Discover why Howler monkeys don’t need Gender Reveals
Gender reveals are beginning to dominate the baby industry and designer babies are steadily on the rise. Some couples want girls, others want boys, many don’t care. Yet a growing percentage of parents are wanting to have the choice.
In the wake of these growing numbers of parents, debates are becoming increasing heated around the ethical consequences of parents choosing the sex of their children.
One argument – that it isn’t natural- can be debunked.
In nature, there is countless cases of temperatures and ecology determining the sex of eggs.
Yet, with Costa Rican howler monkeys, researchers believe that these monkeys may be purposely engineering which females give birth to what genders.
This incredible feat of social engineering is believed to be down to diet.
Dominant females, have first access to food. Investigators believe that these females are purposefully selecting and limiting access to certain plants.
This in-turn determines the sex of their babies and those of the females that aren’t given access to this particular food source. They do this because it benefits the most dominant females to give birth to males.
A successful male can potentially father forty offspring in his lifetime; which means that his mother genes will be copied into the younger generation at a more frequent rate.
Making males a more desirable choice for the most dominant females.
