Women’s History Month and Spring Update

It’s Women’s History Month, and I’ve been thinking about the women in science who have had a significant effect on our understanding of animal behavior, and how it might relate to canine behavior and training. Of course, my first thoughts are of the “Trimates,” referencing Jane Goodall (chimps), Dian Fossey (gorillas), and Biruté Galdikas (orangutans), who were recruited by anthropologist Louis Leakey to study primates, not in a lab, but in the field. He hired women, it is said, because he thought women would be more patient than men. The rest is history . . .

But there are two women, known by few outside of the world of primatology, Jeanne Altmann and Shirley Strum, who turned science on its head by changing the focus from an emphasis on male-dominated hierarchies, to cooperation and reciprocity in both sexes. And they didn’t study chimps or gorillas or orangutans; they studied baboons.

Dr. Jeanne Altmann

It was Dr. Altmann who realized that the standard method for studying a species’ behavior, by taking notes about behavior in a species by observing and writing down “what happened,” [“ad lib sampling”],  led to an inaccurate description of the species’ behavior. ” If you are a human, and are as attracted to drama as parrots, you end up writing a lot about aggression and male hierarchies, because that’s “where the action” is. (Noted: Most researchers in the wild at that point were male.) Rather, Dr. Altmann used “focal sampling,” in which a researcher focused on one individual for a set period of time, and wrote down all that they did.

Suddenly, male dominance hierarchies became no more interesting than the mothering behavior of females, and cooperation between all sexes. “According to the International Encyclopedia of Primatology, her findings ‘profoundly changed the prevailing view of females more generally, and of mammalian females more specifically.’ This research was considered foundational, leading to greater understanding of how a mother’s world affected her offspring’s phenotypes in a nongenetic manner.” [Wikipedia]

We are all indebted to Dr. Altmann for creating a sea change in our understanding of animal behavior, from “nature, red in tooth and claw,” (written by a poet but characteristic of the perspective in science for decades) to one that understands the importance, and commonality, of cooperation and reciprocity that are so common in nature.

Dr. Shirly Strum began studying baboons in 1972,when most behavior researchers were still focused on male dominance and aggression in primates. Rather than finding that baboons in the wild replicated the “male-centric” dominance theories, she found that cooperation and reciprocity were equally important in baboon social relationships. Both sexes used a variety of social strategies, aggression being only one way, to be healthy, to stay safe, and to get what they wanted. One of the amusing and well-known examples is her discovery that male olive baboons sometimes recruited infants, putting them on their bellies to “act as a living shield.” Nobody in baboon society would go after an infant. [Note to my species. Just saying]

Friendships are important in baboon societies–male olive baboons can become close friends with females, and even prevent unwanted males (unwanted by the females, that is) from copulating with them. Males babysit infants, and females thank them by grooming them. There are many more examples, but we now know, thanks to Altmann and Strum, that baboon societies, for all the little attention they get from the public, are closer to that of human societies than those of chimpanzees and gorillas.

Did you notice that a lot of this work was initiated during the 1970’s? It’s also when Goodall’s In The Shadow of Man, the first of her books that reached a large audience, came out. And it is when she still was being criticized for naming her subjects instead of giving them numbers. It is also when a woman could not get a credit card under her own name. When I married Doug McConnell in 1968, I could not open a bank account under the name “Patricia McConnell.” My legal name was “Mrs. Douglas McConnell.”

The amount of work that women have done in science, not to mention in other fields, has long been dismissed–it is gratifying that finally light is being shown on the amazing women who have done so much, in so many ways, to make our lives better. Is dominance the only way to have social stability? Ah, no. How about “Nature, light blue in heart and soul,” in all animal behavior, (versus “red in tooth and claw), as well as in dog training?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Home! It was magical to see family in San Antonio, and a joy to meet dog lovers there, and in Houston and Dallas. More on that next time, I’m running out of gas today. But here’s a sign of spring–the annual smack down at the farm after the sheep are sheared. Sheep identify each other primarily by scent, and much of their personal scent is on their wool. Every year they seem to start over again figuring out who is who. Especially Snow White and Beyonce, who have challenged each every year for I don’t know how long. And who is that smaller white ewe who is clearly protecting Beyonce? They are not related, but are clearly friends.

Some spring flowers in Texas! Bluebells?

Some spring flowers in Wisconsin!

Maggie’s reaction? Napping in the sun, the best!

Besides flowers and adorable old dogs, I’m buoyed by the reviews of my novel, Away To Me on Amazon. 4.7 out of 5, and so many kind words, especially “I couldn’t put it down,”and I loved it!” Music to an author’s ears. Amazon (I know), has put it on sale recently (my agent says it does that for books it wants to attract attention to, not because it’s trying to get rid of it), so check it out if you haven’t gotten a copy yet.