Those Lucky Chimpanzees?

The intriguing headline on the Science Daily Website, “Male Chimpanzees Prefer Mating with Old Females,” is just too good to not to comment on.  Apparently, female Chimpanzees do not experience Menopause as humans do and as a result, older females were more likely to be approached for copulation.  What’s more, “they copulated more frequently with high-ranking males and gave rise to higher rates of male-on-male aggression in mating contests!”  Of course, we humans live long after our fertility stops, whereas Chimpanzees’ reproductive system declines in tandem with overall mortality.  I guess you can’t have it all.