| 3041/
In the US and UK between 40 and 50 per cent of marriages end
in divorce. But when is this seperation most likely? Psychologist
Helen Fisher has collected marriage and divorce statistics
from almost sixty different countries. She has found a worldwide
pattern that shows that divorce peaks at around four years
into a marriage and then declines. It is a pattern that does
not seem to alter despite different cultural norms, marriage
practices, divorce procedures or relationship difficulties.
3042/ The Ache Indians,
a small hunter-gatherer society from the interior Atlantic
forests of northern Paraguay, have an unusual tradition. When
a father dies, the villagers ceremonially kill one or more
of the mans children, even if the mother is still living.
In the eyes of the tribe, the children are sacrificed to appease
the gods.
3043/ Wilson and Daly
scrutinized the statistics of 147 cases in Canada between
1974 and 1983 in which children were killed by their parents
or step-parents, and their conclusions were clear: very few
of them were killed by their biological parents. In fact,
their study showed that a child living with at least one non-biological
parent was an incredible seventy times more likely to be murdered
than a child living with both its biological parents.
3044/ Among the Ache
Indians, if the children are not sacrificed after the feath
of their father, their prospects as stepchildren are not auspicious.
Of a group of sixty-seven children raised by a mother and
a stepfather, an extraordinary 43 percent had died by the
time of their fifteenth birthdays. Of children who were raised
by both biological parents, 19 per cent had died by the same
age - still high, but the odds are definitely in their favour.
3045/ Domestic murder
rates in general are excellent indicators of kin selection.
Detroit used to have one of the highest murder rates in the
Western world. Around a quarter of murders in 1972 took place
in a private home or involved solely family members, but only
a quarter of these killings involved two people who were biologically
related; the rest involved lovers, husbands, wives or step
parents - family members, but not blood relatives.
3046/ A female vampire
bat who has recently eaten her dinner of warm blood taken
from a sleeping pig will happily regurgitate the entire meal
to save an unrelated nest mate from starvation. However, the
bat will only perform her kind act of charity for another
bat with whom she's been a frequent roost mate, and she's
more likely to donate blood to a bat which has gone out of
its way to help her in the past.
3047/ The African driver
ant Dorylus lives in colonies of up to twenty-two million
workers. Their combined mass is more than fifty kilograms,
and they feed off and protect a territory of a massive fifty
thousand square metres.
3048/ Polygerus ants
in the Chirivhaua Mountains in Arizona have been known to
raid nearby nests, kidnap the pupae and return home with their
triumphant prizes. The enemy infants are raised as their own
offspring and turned into 'slaves' who work 'willingly' for
the good of their new hosts.
3049/ In most social
insects, there is an unusual genetic difference between males
and females. When a queen produces an egg that is unfertilized,
it still develops - and always into a male adult. It is one
of the examples of successful virgin birth, or parthenogenesis,
in the animal kingdom. If the egg is fertilised in the normal
way, then the result is female. This means that males have
genes only from the mother; they are what is known as haploid
as opposed to diploid, with half the normal complement of
genes.
3050/ 'The meek shall
inherit the earth', said J Paul Getty, 'but not the mineral
rights'.
3051/ According to the
World Health Organization, 1,600 women die around the world
every day giving birth - that's over half a million a year
every year.
3052/ Scientists at the
University of alaska reported in the journal, Nature, a specimen
of the Argentine Lake Duck with a penis nearly half a metre
long, the same length as its body. Moreover, it is shaped
like an overlong corkscrew.
3053/ The Sage Grouse
has developed a springtime ritual called 'lekking'. A lek
is a communal mating arena in which all the males will gather
to strut, posture and dance for the benefit of the females.
And, among Sage Grouse, just as with humans, some guys get
all the girls. The best grouse dancer can end up with as many
as 80 per cent of the females choosing him.
3054/ Using stuffed dummies
to represent interested grouse females, researchers have shown
that a female grouse tends to choose a male who appears to
have other females in his territory rather than one of the
less popular males. Likewise, in a human psychological study,
women appeared to be more likely to express an interest in
going out with a man if they were told that other women also
find him attractive.
3055/ London Jeweller
De Grisogono sells limited edition mobile phones encrusted
with diamonds. They cost between fifteen and thirty thousand
pounds. Apparently, signs of the zodiac are a favourite design.
3056/ In 2001, a German
tourist was swimming off a beach in Thailand when he noticed
a large tiger shark swimming close by. He furiously swam to
the shore, grabbed his camera and waded
back out again to take a photograph. The shark swam
lazily over and sank his teeth into the man's leg. The bite
severed an artery and the man bled to death.
3057/ One long term study
found that 25 per cent of a wolf population was killed in
confrontations with other wolves.
3058/ Gall insect larvae
battle over access to the precious plant galls they occupy,
and six times out of ten one of the combatants will end up
dead.
3059/ If two honeybee
queens are competing for control of a colony, a crucial struggle
which will determine complete genetic success or failure,
they will fight to the death every time.
3060/ Only 2% of male
red deer are seriously injured in their antler-rattling contests.
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