In chimp world, males find older females sexier

[kurth]

In chimp world, males find older females sexier
Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:13 PM GMT
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chimpanzee males prefer to have sex with older females, U.S. researchers found in a study published on Monday that shows one of the biggest behavioral differences between humans and our closest biological relatives. Male chimps will chase down and fight over the oldest females, while the youngest female chimps are forced to beg for masculine attention, anthropologist Martin Muller and colleagues at Boston University discovered.

"It's really dramatic because it's not just that the old chimps are avoiding the youngest adult females. They actually have a strong preference for the older mothers," Muller said in a telephone interview. Writing in the journal Current Biology, Muller and colleagues said they studied chimpanzees living in the Kanyawara community of Kibale National Park in Uganda.

It is easy to observe their mating behavior. "Chimpanzee copulations are frequently preceded by a series of male courtship signals (e.g., glancing with erect penis and branch shaking), after which either the male or the female approaches the other to mate," the researchers wrote. They also collected the chimps' urine to test for various hormones that demonstrate fertility.

They were checking to see if chimpanzees behave like humans, their closest living relatives, who form long-term mating bonds and who value younger females. This is most definitely not the case with chimps. The very oldest adult females were the most sought-after. "The males fight over them more," Muller said....

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-11-20T221353Z_01_N20413651_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-SCIENCE-CHIMPANZEES-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=SciHealth-C3-Science-3

[Crankie Avalon]

1. In that case, our current pResident ought to be all over Grandma Moses. n/t

[mondo joe]

2. Aren't chimps also highly promiscuous?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. smart chimps

nothing beats a little experience.

[peekaloo]

4. see Karen Hughes, Harriet Miers and Bar Bu$h for further study results.

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[EST]

5. And now we know why * is a bad motherf**ker!

[Brazenly Liberal]

6. Not sure what to do with that information.

Should I tell my husband, who is 10 years younger than I am, that he has the standards of a chimp?
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Lilith Velkor]

7. Just like college

Mmmmm...college...

[spoony]

8. Were the older females teachers?

:evilgrin: