Many species are. Specifically, those species in which the male invests a significant amount of energy and time in providing for the offspring (rather than just fertilizing the female’s eggs and leaving). Humans definitely fall into the category. However, humans (like other monogamous animals) display what is called a “mixed strategy,” whereby each member of the pair tries to monopolize the parental investment of the other parent (to improve the chances for survival of their own offspring) while also remaining alert to (for males) sexual/reproductive opportunities with other females, or (for females) the chance to get resources (in the form of food, protection, etc.) from other males.
Of course, human cultural developments over thousands of years have shaped many variations on this basic theme. But the basic underlying logic remains the same. As evolutionary biologist Lynne Saxon put it, “monogamy is a compromise in which the winners are the offspring.”
That said, monogamy is by no means the rule across our entire species. In fact, a majority of societies around the world at least ALLOW men to have more than one wife. (A few allow women to have more than one husband.) The societies that allow for polygamy tend to be smaller than the ones where monogamy is the ideal, leading to a mistaken impression that our whole species is monogamous. But in fact, humans have devised a number of different sexual/reproductive strategies, across different cultural settings. Often it’s monogamy, for the simple reason that monogamy usually gives children the best chance of survival.
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