{"id":186353,"date":"2025-10-03T01:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186353\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T01:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:51:07","slug":"dangerous-and-energetic-sex-lives-could-be-why-males-die-earlier-than-females-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186353\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous and energetic sex lives could be why males die earlier than females, study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Around the world, women live longer than men<\/a> on average – and scientists have now discovered that competition for a mate <\/a>could be the reason. <\/p>\n

Male mammals<\/a> have elaborate and energetic mating rituals, such as stags crashing antlers, often resulting in injury and shorter lives<\/a>, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found. <\/p>\n

Among the 1,176 species of mammals and birds studied to find out which sex lives longer<\/a>, female mammals live on average 13 per cent longer than males, while among birds, males live about five per cent longer.<\/p>\n

Male mammals and birds both develop characteristics such as colourful markings, antlers, horns and large body size – all to increase reproductive success. But their lifespan could be cut short if they are polygamous and have multiple partners.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale mammals have elaborate and energetic mating rituals, such as stags crashing antlers, often resulting in injury and shorter lives (AP)<\/p>\n

In polygamous mammals with strong competition, males generally die earlier than females due to battling other males for a mate. Many birds, on the other hand, are monogamous, which means that competitive pressure is lower and males often live longer. <\/p>\n

Researchers of the study, published in the journal Science Advances, also found evidence that the sex that plays a role in raising offspring – in mammals, this is usually the female – tends to live longer. <\/p>\n

In primates, such as gorillas, this is likely because the female needs to survive until their offspring are independent or sexually mature. <\/p>\n

But there could be a genetic disadvantage that means male mammals do not live as long as male birds. <\/p>\n

In mammals, females have two X chromosomes, while males have only one X and one Y. Some research suggests that having two X chromosomes may protect females from harmful mutations, offering a survival advantage. <\/p>\n

In birds, however, the system is reversed: females are the \u201cmixed pair\u201d, with Z and W chromosomes, while males have two Z chromosomes.<\/p>\n

Even when animals were kept in zoos, safe from predators and looked after by vets, the same lifespan differences between the sexes remained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome species showed the opposite of the expected pattern,\u201d said lead author Johanna St\u00e4rk. \u201cFor example, in many birds of prey, females are both larger and longer-lived than males. So sex chromosomes can only be part of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some exceptions included male peacocks with bright and colourful tails, which still live longer despite competing for a mate. However, most birds that must compete for a mate find that their longevity advantage shrinks over females. <\/p>\n

Similarly, female howler monkeys, marmosets and tamarins live scarcely longer than the males. This could be because they are monogamous, unlike other mammals.<\/p>\n

By contrast, chimpanzees do compete for mates and in captivity, female chimps live for about 34 years on average and males for 28 – about a fifth less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-186353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}