Reproductive Strategies

The main difference between male and female primates is that female primates are the ones who conceive an offspring. If primate males were the ones to conceive, then the roles would be completely different. There are two different reproduction strategies the male and female follow in the primate world. The male strategy would be to always be ready and wanting to mate, so he can maximize reproductive success. The female reproductive strategy would be to make males compete for her and also to select a quality male (Male with territory and/or ability to protect her and her offspring). Another female reproductive strategy that will benefit her is, sneaky copulation because it creates a confused paternity so, if the transient male takes over the group the offspring will not be killed. The male parental investment is fairly low; mostly all the male does is just give the sperm to the female and take off onto seeking another mate. As for the female parental investment, it’s extremely high; because she must grow the offspring in her body, give birth, nurse and raise the young. The factors of limiting male’s reproductive success would be female access and competition with another male. As for the factors of limiting female’s reproductive success would be food resources, and a predator free space. The male strategies maximize reproductive success because, with males spending less time on parental investment they can seek more mating opportunities; for a chance the female will take care of the offspring so that his genes can be passed on. Another way males maximize their reproductive success would be to eliminate all unfertile females from their mating because there is no way that the male genes could be passed on. Females use their strategy ...

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...st for reproduction; it is now used for sexual satisfaction also.

A reinterpretation of ancestral human mating patterns does not discredit the scientific method because with new technology and research people/scientists are able to collect more data, also taking a closer look at the way human sexual behavior work. This is an example of the scientific method usefulness because when something is acknowledged as correct for the time being, people are able to prove it wrong or add onto the research with new data. Primates are very complex specie; there is so much information just about their sexual behavior and how unique it is. Human sexual behavior is naturally monogamous but it could be different based on research. Meredith Small has a better understanding of how sex practices are used in the world today; rather than the way it was interpreted our ancestors did.