KAMPALA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Male chimpanzees become as aggressive as humans when they suspect their female partner of being unfaithful, a nine-year-long study has shown.

    The study, which was done between 1993 and 2004 at Kibaale National park in western Uganda, showed a marked similarity between the behavior of chimps and human male, many of whom either deface their partners or throw them out of their lives over suspected infidelity.

    According to the study, there are times when the male chimps become very aggressive towards female in their groups, especially when they suspect them of welcoming advances of other male, although chimps are peaceful animals.

    Female chimps only mate at specific times, around the ovulation period, which makes competition for them stiff. At the same time, female chimps deliberately practice promiscuity in order to confuse the males regarding the identity of the real father of their babies.

    "Many male chimps have a tendency of killing baby chimps they have not fathered, which deeply hurts the females. To prevent this,female chimps try to copulate with several males during the mating period so that each one can think that they are the baby's father," according to a statement from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

    Martin Muller, researcher of Boston University, said while attending a meeting in Entebbe, 40 km south of Kampala, that the aggression takes the form of guarding, coercion and courtship, where a male and female seclude themselves and mate for about a month. Enditem