(Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels)

By Stephen Beech

Women live longer than men - except when males don't play the field, suggests a new study.

Females tend to have greater longevity among species with strong competition for mates – as is the case with most mammals, say scientists.

But among birds - where males tend to stick to one breeding partner - males live around 5% longer than females.

Using records from more than 1,100 bird and mammal species in zoos worldwide, researchers found a "striking" lifespan contrast.

In most species of mammal (72%), females lived longer , on average by 12%, while in most bird species (68%), males lived longer, overall by an average of 5%.

Researchers say sex differences are more pronounced in wild populations than in zoos, suggesting that

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