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Among the apes, humans and orangutans conceal ovulation while our closest living… Audio
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About half of all female primates conceal ovulation to make it unlikely that males will know when they are fertile.
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Among the apes, humans and orangutans conceal ovulation while our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, advertise it loudly and proudly.
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Genes for concealed ovulation make both adultery and fidelity easier.
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But concealed ovulation in women cannot have evolved for the convenience of the man.
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With concealed ovulation came continual sexual interest.
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In the late 1970s there was a flurry of speculative theorizing about the evolutionary cause of concealed ovulation.
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Yet concealed ovulation is a habit we share with some monkeys and at least one ape (the orangutan).
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Simon talks about some current ideas about why concealed ovulation evolved and what old school anthropologists could have learned from gibbons.