Roman Catholic doctrine doesn’t have much to say about monkey morality, but there could be trouble if it did. Olive baboons in Nigeria sometimes consume natural contraceptives that may make the females less attractive to the males and almost certainly lower their chances of becoming pregnant.
That’s the conclusion of James Higham of Roehampton University, UK, and colleagues, who found high levels of phyto-progestogens in the faeces of female baboons in at certain times of year.
Like the synthetic progestogens used in the pill, phyto-progestogens have a hormonal contraceptive effect similar to progesterone. Higham’s team found that…
