Chimpanzees rank food ahead of sex

When male chimpanzees leave the family nest it appears they put their stomach ahead of their sexual desires.

A report in the latest issue of Current Biology concludes that adult male chimps tend to follow in their mother's footsteps, spending their days in the same familiar haunts where they grew up.

"We have found that, like females, male chimpanzees have distinct core areas in which they forage alone and to which they show levels of site fidelity equal to those of females," University of Minnesota researcher, Professor Anne Pusey, said.

"Moreover, males remain faithful to the area in which they grew up with their mother, even 20 years after she has died."

"Even alpha males, who could presumably compete successfully to forage in the most productive areas, instead continue to forage in the areas in which they grew up, even in cases where this area is of poor quality."

The researchers suspect that sticking to places they know well might give chimpanzees an advantage when searching for food, despite it effectively increasing the chances of competition for females.

In the study, the researchers analysed male chimpanzees living in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, over four years. It is the first of its type to use direct measurements of young adult male chimps.

Professor Pusey said the findings raise interesting questions for future studies.

Her team now plan to test whether chimpanzees find food more efficiently in familiar areas and whether males learn to follow particular diets from their mothers.