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THE PHILANDERING MEADOW VOLE AND SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS
Thanks to common descent, humans share many of the same genes with numerous other animals. Maybe that’s why some animals exhibit human-like behaviour.
Such as philandering.
Take the humble vole, a tiny furry mouse-like critter. In one species, the meadow vole, the male gets around like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (reported to have fathered some 75 children). But the male of a closely-related species, the prairie vole, typically settles down with one good woman for life. Just like in certain wholesome country songs where things turn out better than they do in certain George Jones songs.
Scientists in Atlanta decided to see what would happen if they transferred a specific gene, suspected to influence philandering behaviour, from the prairie vole to the meadow vole. Sure enough, the investigators found that, by manipulating the expression of a single gene, they could make promiscuous male meadow voles behave like faithful prairie voles.
Since humans have the same gene, could a similar injection be developed to change the philandering behaviour of human males? Send your donation to the Hillary Clinton Philandering Gene Research Foundation.