Infanticide is a reproductive strategy of males

Sarah Hrdy1 gave an adaptive explanation for such infanticide. She regarded it as a male reproductive strategy.

For newly arrived males, killing the baby led the mother to cease breastfeeding, enabling her to quickly resume estrus and mate. As a female, it is also adaptive to resume estrus and mate with a stronger male than the previous one soon after the infanticide, and then give birth to the next child, which will have better protection. 2

■References (Books, papers, Web articles, etc.)
The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Harvard University Press (January 1, 1980)
The Woman That Never Evolved: With a New Preface and Bibliographical Updates, Revised Edition  Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Harvard University Press; Revised edition (December 20, 1999)


1An American primatologist, and one of the first female field workers in the primatology field. Hrdy's third book, The Woman That Never Evolved, was published in 1981. She begins chapter one with a sentence indicating that the results of her work suggest that females should be given a lot more credibility than previously thought: “Biology, it is sometimes thought, has worked against women.” In the book, Hrdy expands upon female primate strategies. The book was one of The New York Times’ “Notable Books of 1981.”[Editorial note]

2In Hanuman langurs, for example, even if a new male drives out the previous male, and takes over the group, he cannot mate with females with suckling infants because ovulation is suppressed by lactation. The infants are not related to the new male, and he doesn’t need to wait for her to finish raising them and resume estrus. For a female, once her baby is killed, there is no need to associate with the previous male mate. Rather than following a weak male who was defeated in battle by another male and lost the position of leader, it is better to mate with the new male who won the battle, and thereby lower the risk of future infanticide.


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