A terrific thanks to all co-authors @julxf.bsky.social @fededalpesco.bsky.social, funding sources @dfg.de, @daadworldwide.bsky.social, and collaborators like Tiergarten Nurnberg #bestbaboons @royalsociety.org (8/8)

Overall, our study highlights that information about the foraging skills of group members can be used flexibly to inform social strategies using simple cognitive processes (7/8)

Oddly, despite eating 40% of the food, males did not behave differently toward the lever-pulling-males. Suggesting male-male relationships in Guinea baboons already enable access to one another’s food, and revealing a stark difference in competition between the sexes (6/8)

Interestingly, female behavior returned to baseline after the food box stopped appearing. Indicating their response was not based on a reassessment of the male’s skills or competence, but rather a response to the short term benefits they received from his lever pulling (5/8)

We found that females in the one-male-units of the lever-pulling-males groomed him 10 times more often and started 4 times more fights with one another, competing with one another over access to the male and the food that a close relationship with him granted (4/8)

We measured how much each individual ate from the reward as well as all social interactions directed at our lever-pulling-males in the weeks before, during, and after daily box presentations in order to detect any changes in their treatment (3/8)

To ask our question we manipulated the foraging skills of one male per group by giving them, and them alone, the ability to create a shareable pile of peanuts by pulling the lever on our food box (2/8)