Humans Crack the “Top Tier” of Monogamous Mammals, Researchers Say
A new scientific report has placed humans firmly within the upper ranks of monogamous species, revealing behavioural patterns that align more closely with socially bonded mammals like meerkats and beavers than with the majority of the animal kingdom. According to research conducted by evolutionary anthropologists at the University of Cambridge, humans exhibit a significantly high rate of reproductive monogamy — a finding that challenges long-held assumptions about human mating behaviour. The study examined genetic and ethnographic data from 35 mammal species, comparing the proportion of full siblings to half-siblings to determine levels of reproductive exclusivity. According to the researchers, species with a higher percentage of full siblings tend to form long-term pair bonds or repeatedly mate with the same partner across reproductive cycles. The analysis placed humans at a 66 percent full-sibling rate , a score that experts described as “comfortably within the premier league o...