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Chimp 'Prostitutes' Trade Sex for Meat

Male chimps who shared hunt spoils had twice as many partners

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 8, 2009 8:25 AM CDT

(Newser) – Male chimps who get lucky hunting are a lot likelier to get lucky with female chimps if they share the spoils, a new study finds. Researchers tracked a band of chimps in the wild and found that while all were promiscuous, male hunters who shared meat—generally a rare treat for chimps—with females had twice as many partners, the Independent reports.

"Males who shared meat with females doubled their mating success," a researcher said, "whereas females, who had difficulty obtaining meat on their own, increased their calorific intake without the energetic costs and potential risk of injury related to hunting."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Chimpanzees play with a pumpkin with a Halloween face at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in this 2005 file photo. (AP Photo/Mark Baker )

Anthropologists speculate that a similar food-for-sex arrangement existed in the very earliest human societies. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

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Our results strongly suggest that wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex, and do so on a long-term basis. - Cristina Gomes of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 5 comments

Derni

Apr 8, 2009 6:28 AM CDT

Last time I checked many men and woman have resorted to taking on sexual activities that will put food on the table-under strees and the need to take care of children and ourselves we all do things we might never have thought possible-remember: we share 98.5 % of the Bobobo chimps genes-and they solve all their problems via sex-hell I might like that!

Altoecko

Apr 8, 2009 6:14 AM CDT

This sounds more like polygamy than prostitution.

Doctor-Zaius

Apr 8, 2009 3:29 AM CDT

I don't date chimps. After you split up they take half your meat.

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Chimp 'Prostitutes' Trade Sex for Meat