Attractive and successful: In bonobos, attractive females are more likely to win conflicts against males
Monday, July 15, 2013 - 11:00
in Biology & Nature
While intersexual dominance relations in bonobos never have been thoroughly studied in the wild, several ideas exist of how females attain their dominance status. Some researchers suggest that bonobo female dominance is facilitated by females forming coalitions which suppress male aggression. Others think of an evolutionary scenario in which females prefer non-aggressive males which renders male aggressiveness to a non-adaptive trait.