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In the Fact File section we bring you a new collection of quick facts each week. (Click on the links below for more facts)

 
 

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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