Chimps Trade Meat for Sex -- And It Works
雌猩猩以性换肉，而且很奏效
相关报道：
科学家发现，野生雌性黑猩猩通过向雄性黑猩猩提供性服务换肉，这是动物界的一种卖淫方式。他们发现，用性换肉的行为早就存在，已经成为一群住在科特迪瓦塔伊国家公园的野生黑猩猩的社会构架的一部分。
人类学家以前猜测，早期人类社会就有“用性换肉”的行为，而最出色的男猎人有最多的性伴侣。科学家们说，最近的这项研究支持这个假设。德国莱比锡马科斯·普兰克进化人类学研究所的克莉丝汀娜·戈麦斯说：“我们的研究强有力地证明，野生黑猩猩有用性换肉的行为，而且这种行为早就存在了。同雌性分享肉的雄性黑猩猩使交配成功率提高一倍。但靠自己力量很难得到肉的雌性不需要付出太多能量，也不需要冒与打猎有关的潜在危险就可以增加热量摄入。”
科学家在网络版《公共科学图书馆》杂志上撰文说，雄性和雌性黑猩猩都有滥交行为，但和雌性分享肉的雄性能获得更多的性交机会。戈麦斯说：“以前的研究并没有发现雌性黑猩猩用性换肉的行为，因为他们关注的是短期交换，或者他们研究的对象都是一些遭到雄性黑猩猩强迫的雌性黑猩猩，它们几乎没有选择配偶的权利。这对我们将来研究男人和女人有重要影响。”
美国国家地理杂志英文原文：
The time-honored tradition of the dinner date may be just one more example of evolution at work.
Wild male chimps that share meat with females double their chances of having sex with those females, a new study says. The findings support a long-held hypothesis that food sharing improves male chimpanzees' chances of mating.
Studies had long shown that male chimpanzees shared meat with females, which don't typically hunt. The reason for the meat sharing, however, was a mystery—though perhaps not too tough to guess.
Males observed in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) shared monkey meat with females that exhibited the pink swellings on their rear ends that indicate ovulation and sexual availability.
More surprising was that males shared meat with females that didn't have sexual swellings, perhaps in hopes of future success, the researchers say.
The sex "may not necessarily occur immediately—it could occur sometime in the future," said study co-author Cristina M. Gomes, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
Meat is generally a rare treat for chimps, whose diet consists mainly of fruits and vegetables.
Evolution at Work?
The findings could shed light on our own evolutionary origins, researchers said.
Studies of human hunter-gatherer societies have long shown that skillful hunters have more offspring and wives. But scientists are divided on how, or whether, hunting skills and mating success were connected.
The fact that the chimp males also shared meat with females not in heat could also add new fire to the debate about chimpanzees' cognitive abilities, experts add. That's because the research might suggest that chimps can anticipate future interactions or remember interactions they had in the past. |
发表于 2009-4-10 14:24
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