ET CETERA : Bats Push Envelope of Fathering Skills

Consider the modern father: attending birthing classes, changing diapers, baby-sitting while Mom goes to the office. Could child-rearing be more egalitarian?

Perhaps. Boston University biologist Thomas H. Kunz and his colleagues report in the journal Nature that male bats in the family Dyacopterus spadiceus can grow breasts and secrete milk.

Although male lactation has been seen occasionally in domesticated animals, presumably due to severe in-breeding, the discovery marks the first evidence of milk production in wild male mammals.

It hints at the tantalizing (to some) possibility that with the right kind of hormonal manipulation men, too, might someday be able to suckle their young.

But Kunz said it isn’t clear whether the male bats actually serve as wet nurses. The amount of milk they make is less than one-tenth that made by females, and their nipples don’t show the hardening that comes from being tugged upon by young mouths.