The safer sex? For a little-known primate, a new understanding of why females outlive males. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. February 28, 2013. After observing an endangered lemur for more than two decades in the wild in Madagascar, Patricia Wright of Stony Brook University had a hunch that females were living longer than males. What could explain the gender gap? By taking a closer look at dispersal behavior across the lifespan, researchers think they have a clue. Picked up by Futurity.