Blog Post #2 - Gender in the Wild

          Have you ever thought about how gender impact family relationships in the wild? Actually, many people don‘t realize that animals also behave differently according to their gender although people know that they have different roles in family relationships based on gender. However, there are three different kinds of studies reveal how gender influences animals in the wild.

           One of the studies shows gender effect in elephant societies. According to the study, elephants form matriarchal families. In matriarchal society, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and female friends usually raise elephant babies, so there are strong bonds between females. For this reason, female live in large groups as long as 70 years. Conversely, young male elephants stay close to their female family members only until they are 14. Another study is about geladas. According to the study, we can see that female geladas have the real power in family groups even though they are smaller and less distinctive-looking than male geladas. For example, females decide where and how long to graze for food, when to move, and where to sleep. They also choose which male will be their mate and when it is time to replace that mate with another mate. On the other hand, the only things males can do are just waiting to be chosen and staying in the family. The other of the studies discover that gender influences the ways in which young chimpanzees play. In the study, young female monkeys in captivity like dolls better than others, while male monkeys prefer toys such as trucks. It shows that male and female animals in the wild also play in contrasting ways.

          These studies shows that animals are influenced by their gender. Interestingly, these gender effects in animals are differ from gender effects in people. Of course, animals are similar to people because both are influenced by their gender. However, despite their similarity, they are different. In my opinion, as we can see in the studies about elephant and geladas, females have more power than males in a lot of animal groups. In contrast, historically, males are more powerful than females in many human cultures. It is very impressive for me because I think males still have more power in Korean society.