Several decades ago there was a problem with overpopulation on an African game preserve - too many elephants. Limited by the technology available at the time, the solution arrived at was to move the babies to new preserves. Everyone watched, gravely concerned, but the babies thrived.

However, unintended consequences emerged. At the new locations, a decade or so after the transfer, someone was killing off rhinoceros which are an endangered species. It turned out the killers were young male elephants. At first the game wardens couldn't believe it, this was uncharacteristic behavior never before seen in elephants.

They deduced that the young males had grown up without fathers - without male role models. New technology had made it possible to transport into these locations some large mature bull elephants.  There was concern that it would be too late, that the adolescent males had to have grown up with their elders, that bringing "daddies" in now would do no good. But they tried it anyway.

It worked like a charm. The mature bulls arrived and set things straight. The young males immediately stopped their precocious, rampant sexuality, killing and violence.

<>The conclusion drawn on 60 Minutes was that we had no idea that the social system of the elephants was so complex, interconnected, and so elegant. And so it goes. Daddies do matter, even in elephants.
Diane Sollee, www.smartmarriages.com