Afew years ago. four female mountain gorillas （大猩猩）left home, abandoning not onl-组卷网

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A few years ago. four female mountain gorillas （大猩猩）left home, abandoning not only their mate — a sick alpha silverback — but their infants （幼崽），which were barely old enough to Iced themselves. Most mammals abandoned by their mothers risk an early death, and researchers worried about the young gorillas.

Instead, the scientists got a heartwarming surprise. The young gorillas’ uncle, a male gorilla named Kubaha, began to take care of them. He let them sleep in his nest and climb all over him like a jungle gym.

Kubaha’s willingness to be a foster dad turns out to be surprisingly common in mountain gorillas. An analysis on mountain gorillas at the Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda has revealed that when young mountain gorillas lose their mothers, they do not have a greater risk of dying or losing their place in the social hierarchy because the rest of the group buffers them from the loss. The social group has evolved to protect the infants from the ill effects of losing their mothers.

The researchers confirmed this assumption by focusing on data on 59 gorillas between the ages of 2 and 8 who lost their mothers or were orphaned （成为孤儿）before they were fully mature. They then compared the survival of these animals across their lifetimes with the survival of 139 nonorphaned gorillas. They also compared their reproductive success and social rank as adults — and tracked who the infants spent the most time with.

Not only were the orphaned and motherless gorillas at no greater risk of dying, they also suffered no long-term effect on their ability to reproduce or on their social rank, the team reports today in eLife.

The findings suggest such altruistic behavior is not unique to humans — and that dads play an important role in primate youngsters' lives, says Duke behavioral ecologist Susan Alberts, "Nonhuman primates often are really good dads," she says. 'This shows that paternal care goes very deep in our primate lineage."

【小题1】What moved the scientists according to the first two paragraphs?

A．Young gorillas’ being abandoned.

B．Kubaha's caring for the infants.

C．Young gorillas’ sleeping in uncle's nest.

D．Young gorillas’ climbing over their uncle.

【小题2】What is the life of motherless gorillas like?