This is true of cats too. Stray mother cats will keep moving her kittens because tomcats would seek out lactating mother cats, but will first kill the kittens before mating with her. Nature is brutal.

Also in a way, the tomcat is making sure that his kittens won’t have to share resources with kittens from a different litter.

P.S: that’s a great book by Sapolsky. I read it fully and just last night, I went back to it for light selective browsing. Very well written. Thanks for mentioning it.