European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 05, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday novembers 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 fresh insights into the behaviour of animals drawing by Sarah Landry from sociobiology by e. O. Wilion. Her Florida scrub Jay unable to find netting Tito Hilp their Parent ratio Young a Way for non breeder to promote reproduction of Tome of their Gene. By Erik Eckholm new York times in Little More than a decade sociobiology has transformed the study of animal behaviour an brought a blossoming of insights into Why animal act the Way they do. Its relevance to humans however remains hotly disputed. Guided by the Field s new theories zoologists have begun to peer at animals through a different Lens enabling them to explain some longstanding puzzles of evolution and to reach some starting conclusions. They say they finally understand the self sacrificing toll of worker bees for example and Why females Are often Coy. They say that explaining animal behaviour often requires As one scientist put it viewing males and females As if they were two different  the study of the evolution of behaviour has been revolutionized said Melvin Konner chairman of anthropology at Emory University. H he been 10 Deere now since the publication of an encyclopedic Book by the Harvard entomologist Edward 0. Wilson first Drew Public attention to the emerging Field of sociobiology the study of How natural selection shapes behaviour ust As it shapes physical trails. The Book s Doc annual has spurred a number of evaluations of the achievements and mistakes of the maturing discipline. Wilson s Book sociobiology. Was mainly a review of knowledge about the behaviour and social structures of animals in the wild which it discussed in relation to some new largely untested theories about evolution genetics and behaviour. In essence the new approach argued that propensities for such disparate Behaviours As cooperation conflict domination and self sacrifice could become genetically encoded in a species men and women act differently excited researchers began to speculate about the evolutionary roots of these and other patterns of behaviour. The suggestion that evolution has fixed a Mother s tendency to love her Newborn was innocuous enough. But efforts to explain in terms of genetic self interest Why people Are hostile toward strangers Why men hold More powerful jobs than women or Why rape persists triggered outrage. Critics protested that human sociobiology was a form of genetic determinism that would inevitably be used to justify the social status quo. They also charged that it was bad science that genes could not account for Complex human Behaviours and that even where propensities might be in born they Are usually overwhelmed by environmental influences. Wilson and others applying sociobiology to humans application of to i nans is it tested Cociu Mecom Gene ii tin a through natural selection acting on India lid ils evolution would favor the social patterns to at were the most  it fit Well within the darwinian tradition. Sociobiology also Drew on recent advances in genetics and on the increased precision of Field studies of Buh Book s Fame and the criticism arose from Wilson s assertion that sociobiology might one Day provide evolutionary explanations or human social patterns and psychology. Why people love and Why they hate Why they Are truthful and Why they lie Why dug in charging that critics were anti science and arguing that human nature must be understood. Ii not always praised before social goals can be achieved. Meanwhile students of animal behaviour Many about human society made by colleagues were nevertheless excitedly applying what they saw As powerful new tools of explanation now available to them. The theories scientist say have enabled them to figure out the origins of Behaviours that had perplexed observers since the time of Darwin. These Range from altruistic acts that would appear to reduce an individual animal s chances of passing on genes such As a worker Bee s sexless life of service to her Queen to infanticide a practice found among monkeys Lions and other species. The  sociobiology was the theory of inclusive fitness published in 1964 by William d. Hamilton then a graduate student at the University of London. In his new Book social evolution. Robert Trivers Calls inclusive fitness the most important Advance in evolutionary theory since the work of Charles Darwin and Gregor  the theory unravels one of the paradoxes of darwinian evolution How could so called altruistic traits which Lead individuals to Aid others in ways that prevent them from leaving offspring of their own. Remain in the Gene Pool of the species Over Lime Hamilton showed that the selfless attributes of worker ants and bees could persist because the sterile workers were aiding the reproduction of close relatives. The classic concept of natural selection he showed must be extended it favors individuals thai maximize not Only their own reproduction but also that of genetic relatives. Scientists Heve now documented altruistic behaviour in Many species including Birds that help their parents raise new Young rather than nesting themselves and sons of jackals that likewise Aid their parents. Inclusive fitness also helps explain the development of senescence. It does t make any sense said Stuart Allmann a biologist at the University of Chicago. Why has t evolution produced individuals that fall Over dead the minute they Stop reproducing the answer in Many animals is that the older ones help indirectly with the raising of the Young their nieces and  Sci biological concepts have wrought Radical alternations in the understanding of sex roles in animal societies. Scientists have begun to focus on the differences in the strategies males and females of the same species employ to increase the number of their offspring that survive. Only by regarding males and females As if they were two different species Are we Likely to understand Why it is that the sexes differ so widely in Anatomy physiology and behaviour said Tim Glutton Brock a Cambridge University ecologist who studied reproduction among red Deot. New Field observations often of Behaviours overlooked until new theories predicted them have sometimes overturned sexual stereotypes. Instead of seeing As biologists once did the social structures of Many species As determined simply by the Competition of males Lor females scientists now recognize that females often actively exercise Choice among males and have their own modes of competing with each other for rights to the fittest males