(单词翻译:单击)
Researchers in the UK classified more than 2500 mammalian species as either solitary, socially monogamous, or as group living, which is when several breeding females live together.
英国的研究人员分类整理了在多个正处于孕期的雌性动物一起生活时，独居动物，实行一夫一妻制的动物，和群居动物等2500多种哺乳类动物的行为。
Then, for the socially monogamous species, they analyzed data from closely related species and discovered that, in each case, the females used to be solitary and territorial, and that infanticide was rare and therefore couldn't have led to monogamy.
他们分析了实行一夫一妻制物种的近亲数据，发现在每一种情况下，雌性动物都是独居的，并且有很强的领地意识，杀婴行为几乎没有，因此不可能促使一夫一妻制的形成。
Then why did monogamy evolve?
那么一夫一妻制是如何进化的呢?
The current thinking is that monogamy evolved as a mate guarding strategy in species where females lived alone too far apart for a single male to monopolize access to more than one female at a time.
当前的推论是，当雌性动物距离太远，雄性动物无法同时占据两个及两个以上的雌性动物时，雄性动物出于保卫配偶的目的，出现了一夫一妻制。
So monogamy enabled males to pass on their genes more reliably.
因此一夫一妻制可使雄性更稳定的传递他们的基因。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载!
