A recent research has shed light on how chimpanzees and orangutans experience midlife crises. Published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research could change a lot in terms of the deeply rooted beliefs about human happiness.

"This opens a whole new box in the effort to explain" the midlife dip in well-being, said senior author Andrew Oswald, a behavioral economist at the University of Warwick in England. "It makes one's head spin".

Earlier researches had indicated how emotional health of humans tracks a U-shape between 20 and 70, followed by the mid- to late-40s. In order to probe further, Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at the University of Warwick in England, along with his team tracked data on the well-being of 508 chimpanzees and orangutans from zoos and research centers in the United States, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Japan.

The team also interviewed Caretakers and scientists about them, and claimed that well-being is lowest in chimpanzees and orangutans around the age close to midlife in humans.

Feeling depressed during midlife crisis is seen in both, but it seems apes are not that apparent in showing the same. It is hoped that this revelation may lead to caretakers improve captive apes' quality of life.