Scientists said on Thursday a study of chimpanzees in Tanzania conducted over the last 17 years showed that males that subjected females to long-term aggressive behavior, including physical attacks, improved their chances of having babies with them.
"It is certainly not a happy message," said Arizona State University evolutionary anthropologist Ian Gilby, one of the researchers, according to Reuters.
"Males who directed aggression toward females at high rates were more likely to sire those females' offspring than less violent males were. This effect was particularly strong for high ranking males (in the chimpanzee community)," Gilby added.
The study involved ape species that is a close genetic cousin of humans, though the researchers were wary about making conclusions about the origins of sexual violence in people.
Researchers knew from long-term observations of this chimp community in Tanzania's Gombe National Park which ones had mated with one another as well as the paternity of 31 babies born during the study period, which took place from 1995 through 2011, based on DNA collected from fecal matter.
"The hypothesis is that females are intimidated by long-term aggression from the male so that they acquiesce or even solicit mating from the male when they are fertile, and avoid mating with other males in his presence for fear of further aggression from the male," said Duke University evolutionary anthropologist Anne Pusey, one of the researchers, according to Reuters.
Aggressive behavior by the males included violent physical attacks including biting and striking that sometimes caused wounds.
Mating didn't take place during or immediately after the bullying. It was serial aggressive behavior over two or three years that was effective in later securing fatherhood.
Researchers found the females at their time of peak fertility actively sought to mate with the males that physically abused them.
The evolutionary lineage for humans and chimps split some 7 million years ago and that the mating systems for the two species aren't the same, the researchers said.
"Nevertheless, recognizing the adaptive value of male-female aggression in chimpanzees may inevitably help us to understand, and hopefully prevent, similar behavior among humans," Gilby said.
The research was published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
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