A 17-year long study of chimpanzees in Tanzania has helped in finding the reason as to why male chimpanzees show aggression towards females.

Scientists reportedly stated Thursday that the long-term aggression that a male chimpanzee subjects a female to, often including physical attacks, greatly improved their chances of fathering babies with them, according to Reuters.

"It is certainly not a happy message," stated Arizona State University evolutionary anthropologist Ian Gilby, one of the researchers.

Kilby added, "Males who directed aggression towards females at high rates were more likely to sire those females' offspring than less violent males were. This effect was particularly strong for high ranking meals (in the chimpanzee community)."

The findings in the study reportedly showed that long-term patterns of aggression and intimidation allowed high-ranking male chimpanzees to increase their reproductive success, presenting researchers with what may be the first genetic evidence of sexual coercion as an adaptive strategy in any social mammal according to the website Science Codex.

"The hypothesis is that females are intimidated by long-term aggression from the male so that they acquiesce or even solicit mating from the male when they are fertile, and avoid mating with other males in his presence for fear of further aggression from the male," said Duke University evolutionary anthropologist Anne Pusey, one of the researchers.

Although there have been theories that the behavior of chimpanzees is very similar to that of human beings, that isn't the case in the recent findings.

"The glaring difference between chimpanzee and human mating behavior is that in chimpanzees females mate promiscuously with most male group mates during most cycles, while human females do not," stated Joseph Feldblum of Duke University.

He continued, "Thus, the system that favors male coercion in chimpanzees is not present in humans to favor this behavior."