Male chimpanzees go for an older partner
Male chimpanzees regard the mature female chimpanzee as the epitome of sexual desirability and fight for her favours, while younger females have to beg for male attention.
New research published in Current Biology reports on studies of chimps in a Ugandan national park. It says that female chimps remain fertile their whole lives.
Older females are dominant socially and so have access to better food. Any physical toll that age and a life having babies takes is, to the virile male, a sign of success that promises his offspring a genetic head start in life.
The results suggest that the human tendency towards monogamy and a preference for mating with younger females is driven, at least in part, by the occurrence of menopause in women.
Because men know that the older a woman gets the less fertile she will be, it is in their interests to choose a young female who can go on breeding for years, the report says.
