Male chimp goes crazy when she gets 'red light'

The chimpanzees adjust their readiness to " that ", based on their periods. This makes males compete fiercely with each other to reach her.

Children of some species often calculate when to have sex to increase their chances of choosing a healthy father for their children. For example, almost chimpanzees' encounters occur when children are at the most fertile stage of their periods.

Akiko Matsumoto-Oda, a primate at Okinawa University, Japan, and colleagues studied chimpanzees living in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania. After analyzing the data for 9 years, the group found that the chimpanzees sought to avoid all of their periods coinciding with each other, so that not all flocks were always ready for sex. The group conjectured that chimpanzee did so to try to relate to the best male.

"Male chimpanzees often force their children to have sex with them, which will make them lose their ability to choose partners," said John Mitani, a scientist at the University of Michigan. By not always being able to "do it ", the children will create competition between males to choose the most healthy guy to be present in time.

Such competitions will reduce the likelihood that children will encounter poor quality guys. It also increases the chances that some healthy males will have sex with many females at once, creating a strong family relationship in a community.

MT