It turns out that male chimpanzees increase their opportunities for sex, in fact double them, by providing a quality meal. It is often joked about in human culture that if a man provides a nice dinner he might get lucky, well if the behavior of our closest relative in the animal kingdom correlates then there is a lot of truth to the effectiveness of this dating ritual.

Grooming is one way for chimps to create bonds but sharing meat from a hunt may well trump all else.
Photo by Bill Given of Darwin and Orion, members of the 'M' Group in Mahale National Park.

Meat from hunts is a rare commodity and treasured treat throughout chimpanzee society. Most fascinating about this study was males did not only share meat with females that were in estrus, but also shared with those not in a reproductive state at the moment indicating forethought by the male toward a future advantage, as well as suggesting that a female will remember this act in the future.

The research article documenting these findings