6 animals whose sex life will seem familiar to a person
It is generally believed that, with the exception of dolphins, some species of monkeys and humans, animals have sex under the influence of instinct — they find a couple only in order to produce offspring. This is not quite true: some animal species also have sex for pleasure and sometimes in a very interesting way.
Homosexuality is not such a rare phenomenon in the animal world. But, as far as we know, males of only two species can be excited by watching the sexual act of females: humans and goats.
Yes, goats love to watch lesbian acts of goats. In most cases, the goat gets so excited that he tries to join them as a third partner, unless, of course, the goats drive him away.
However, lesbian sex is not quite common for goats: rather, it is an extreme when a goat does not show interest in mating — thus females attract him. In addition, a phenomenon called urolagnia may well manifest itself — goats begin to urinate on each other in the hope that the goat will drink some of the urine.
By the way, in the opposite case, this does not work: male goats do not copulate with each other in the hope of attracting a female.
For people to appear in public with less attractive friends is a common practice, and not at all because it is necessary to be friends with everyone, but because this way we are more like supermodels. But the same trend is observed in guppy fish.
Female guppies prefer brightly colored males. This is understandable from the point of view of evolution: beautiful individuals are always perceived as the strongest and most prolific. Meanwhile, ugly males can only wait.
However, the researchers noticed that the genes of dim guppies are transmitted as often as bright ones. Such males try to stay close to even less attractive males in order to look much better in comparison with them. The fact that guppies adhere to such tactics is especially interesting because it serves as an example of possible self-awareness, which most animals do not have. The ugly guppy knows about his unattractiveness, and as soon as he realizes this, he immediately goes in search of even uglier fish.
Of course, there are many species of animals in which the male causes pain to the female during mating or vice versa. But Tasmanian devils practice this behavior as a "love game" — the female pretends to be a victim, but the male almost never causes her serious injuries.
Nevertheless, the female will not even consider the possibility of a relationship if the male does not prove his male worthiness. But instead of fighting for her with other males or hunting, he pounces on the female — scratches her, bites her, hits her or even throws her on the ground. The harder he does it, the more she becomes ready to mate. If the behavior of the male does not satisfy her, they switch roles, and in this case the female already beats the male.
In fact, this is the real sex. Foreplay with bites and scratches can last more than an hour, and so it repeats over and over again for two days. After sexual intercourse, the male simply falls asleep.
But the Tasmanian she-devil wants to make sure that she has mated with the best male, and therefore leaves to find another one. She will do this again and again until she is sure of the correctness of her choice. The she-devil can carry up to four puppies, each of which will have completely different fathers.
People, as you know, can meet with a partner they like for a very long time — this is one of the distinctive human traits. But albatrosses behave the same way. And if some people think that two dates are enough, albatrosses are picky creatures: since they live for a very long time, courtship can last for years.
The reason is that each albatross has a number of basic movements embedded in his head, and if he and a potential partner can make these movements together, then only then will they begin to create offspring.
On average, the albatross dance takes several hours and can include complex sequences of movements: birds bow, jump, snap their beaks and touch each other with them. In some cases, a couple practices dancing together for up to two years. This is surprising, but most often in the end the female still lays an egg.
And, as is the case with many human couples, after the appearance of the chick, the dancing stops. His father and mother raise him together, but, apparently, it is believed that they have already established themselves as excellent partners at the courtship stage.
Sex for animals is just a way to pass on their genes, but female weevils know a way to explain to their partner exactly what they like — and explain.
The female weevil is able to store the sperm of several males in her body at once, but later she chooses the sperm of only one male to produce offspring. And she chooses based on the pleasure she received during sexual intercourse.
During mating, the male penetrates into the female with the help of his pedipalps and begins to inject sperm through them. A pedipalp is an extra limb with a penis near the spider's mouth. The female responds by stroking the male's pedipalp with her own, and as a result there is a sound similar to the creaking of the skin.
This creak serves for the male to inject sperm into the female the way she likes it — in fact, the female directs him. If everything suits her, then the seed will slip into her body, and there is a great chance that this particular spider will become the father of her cubs. If he does not listen to her, she will reject him.
No one likes traitors — people have an extremely negative attitude towards those who break their promises behind their backs. As for the black vultures, these birds also hate deception and severely punish "philanderers".
Black vultures form pairs for life and take monogamy extremely seriously: if a vulture tries to take care of a busy female, then the other vultures collectively beat him. This is because the vulture chick needs to be constantly cared for, which requires the continuous attention of both parents. They hatch the egg in turn, changing every 24 hours, and in the first year of its life they feed the chick alternately. Thus, a young vulture, caring for a strange female, puts the chick's life in danger.