The Small Bachelor

Often, these fights are savage, since what is at stake is the male's evolutionary future. Humans are unlike any other primate as they live in large groups as {more or less) faithful pairs. In this, people are more similar to seagulls than to any ape. The closest in behaviour to ourselves is the pygmy chimpanzee. This forms long-lasting pairs within a stable but small group of individuals and has other attributes not unlike our own (such as face-to-face copulation). The average Frenchman or Briton has ten sexual partners in his life and, as in many primates, there is more variation among men in their success than among women. One in a hundred men is responsible for one in six of the females who have sex. Monkeys and apes show a good genera! fit between the size difference of the sexes and patterns of mating. In those species with large harems and angry bachelors, males are much bigger than females, because bulk and aggression help in the battle for partners. Gorilla males are twice as large as females, while the chimpanzee's more relaxed society has taken the pressure off sexual hostility and males and females weigh about the same ...»