Not elder law: What can we learn from chimpanzees?

Researchers studying chimpanzee mating preferences have found thatalthough male chimpanzees prefer some females over others, they preferolder, not younger, females as mates. The findings uncover a starkcontrast between chimpanzee behavior and that of humans, their primatecousins. The basis for this difference may lie in the fact that whereaschimpanzees participate in a relatively promiscuous mating system,humans form unusually long-term mating bonds, thereby making youngfemales more valuable as mates with greater reproductive potential. Thefindings, reported by Martin Muller of Boston University and colleaguesat Harvard University, appear in the November 21st issue of CurrentBiology.

Theoretical explanations for the preference of humanmales for young females as mates include the facts that humans tend toform long-term mating partnerships, and that female fertility islimited by menopause and, therefore, age. The converse of such anexplanation suggests that species that appear to lack long-term pairbonding and menopause (such as chimpanzees) should not exhibit suchstrong preferences by males for young females.

In the newwork, researchers examined this idea by studying male mate preferenceswithin the Kanyawara chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park inUganda. The researchers found that, in contrast to humans, malechimpanzees prefer older females to younger ones. They found that,compared to younger females, older females were more likely to beapproached for copulation, were more often in association with malesduring estrous periods, copulated more frequently with high-rankingmales, and gave rise to higher rates of male-on-male aggression inmating contests.

The findings, in addition to supporting theidea that long-term pair bonding and menopause may contribute to thepreference of human males for young females, also suggest that thischaracteristic may be an evolutionarily derived trait that arose in thehuman lineage sometime after the lineages giving rise to humans andchimpanzees diverged.

Read more at EurekAlert!
Ed:  Take that, Tom Cruise!