17 vile and slightly frightening facts about animal reproduction

The basics of reproduction between representatives of fauna are probably known to everyone thanks to school biology lessons. But there is information that teachers, for reasonable reasons, tried to hide from us. For example, the fact that male kangaroos have three penises at once, or that most swan couples are homosexuals.

What other amazing facts are known about the sexual life of animals, read in our material.

The meeting of the drone and the female bee for its further insemination takes place in the air at an altitude of about 10-40 meters and lasts no more than 5 seconds. But this time is enough for the female to receive the amount of sperm necessary to produce offspring.

By the way, the ejaculate shoots with such force that the clap can be heard even from the ground. During this process, a part of the sexual organ is torn off from the drone and it dies. And the female still receives sperm for a very long time from the remaining member in the form of a plume in her reproductive system.

Did you know that it wasn't people who came up with the idea of group sex, but animals. For example, in whales, the mating process always takes place in the presence of a third partner, who keeps the female afloat and directs their actions.

Males of some species of spiders pump their sperm into the tip of the paw, after which they insert it into the female's genital organ and tear it off, thereby creating a cork. This is necessary so that the sperm does not flow out and another male cannot penetrate into the spider.

For further survival and normal development, the chicks of finch weavers must be born at a certain temperature. But weather conditions are an unpredictable thing! Therefore, nature has endowed these birds with the ability to slow down the birth of offspring with the help of a special cry. Thus, the male notifies the non-hatched chicks that it is too early for them to be born, and they freeze in development for a few more days.

The female aphid is born already pregnant! A new life begins to develop in her when she herself is still inside the mother. Thanks to this rapid process of reproduction, a new aphid is born after 10-14 days.

Coccotrypes dactyliperda beetles use a haplodiploid reproduction system. In it, males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid (have a single set of unpaired chromosomes), and females develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid (have paired chromosomes). To make this possible, first an unfertilized female lays eggs by same-sex reproduction, from which only males hatch. Then she mates with the "eldest son", eats him and all the others and produces a second line of offspring, in which individuals of both sexes are already present.

The sexual life of a tick of the Adactylidium species could well become a plot for some horror movie. That's because there is always one male and 5-6 females in his womb. The male fertilizes his sisters, and then together they eat their way out through the body of their mother. That, accordingly, dies, and they continue their life cycle.

Many animals have the ability to retain a partner's sperm in their genitals before it fertilizes an egg. Chickens, for example, thus choose the best sperm from different partners from the point of view of genetics, and they simply get rid of the unsuitable one.

As we have already written above, getting sperm into the genital tract of an animal does not mean a guaranteed pregnancy at all. Many animal species are endowed with the ability to store sperm inside for a long time and start the fertilization process when they see fit. Usually this skill is observed in those representatives of the fauna who rarely meet each other, so "sperm reserves" in their case are a necessity.

For example, armadillos can delay fetal development for up to two years.

If anything, we are talking about this yellow bag

In order to produce offspring, the marine arthropod parasite sacculin invades the body of a fish, crab or crab, does chemical castration to it and literally takes possession of its body, but does not kill it! Now you will understand why.

This body will still be needed for sacculina to bear offspring. When the female is ready to reproduce, she will call the males, and they will also infiltrate the body of the "host", who, however, does not mind at all, because he is 100% sure that the eggs of the parasite are his own eggs. Therefore, she takes care of them and quietly bears children.

Sometimes it is not even the methods of reproduction that cause surprise, but also the genitals of some animals themselves. For example, male koalas have a forked penis, and females "can boast" of having two vaginas and two queens. Thanks to this natural mechanism, their chances of survival are doubled.

Gerontophilia is called sexual attraction to persons much older than themselves. And it is observed not only in humans, but even in animals. For example, male chimpanzees prefer to mate only with adult females, and leave the young ones to inexperienced males.

Insects of the genus Neotrogla of the hay-eating order are not like any other. The fact is that the female has a kind of penis, and the male has a vagina. During mating, the female sits on top and "sucks" the sperm from the vagina with her penis.

Swans are often called a symbol of pure and strong love and loyalty. But many at the same time do not even realize that most swan couples are homosexual. The female lays an egg for the males, after which they expel her from the nest and raise offspring themselves.

Amazonian frogs of the Rhinella proboscidea species, when breeding, can be said to engage in necrophilia. As a rule, many males pile on one female at once, which is why some individuals drown. The rest take the eggs out of the dead female and fertilize her already outside her body.

Many animals entrust the care of future offspring to males. These include emperor penguins, ostriches, seahorses, and sometimes even wolves. For example, in ostriches, several females lay eggs in the nest at once, after which they leave, leaving the male to protect them.

Male penguins generally hatch eggs themselves, while not eating at all, and females return only by the time the children hatch.

In South America, there are golden catfish that are fertilized by oral sex. The female sucks the sperm from the male through his "antennae", after which the liquid enters the intestine and moves through it into a special bag, where fertilization takes place.

That's such a rich sex life for some animals. After reading these facts, the thought arises: "How boring we live!" (and thank God). After all, experiments in bed do not always end with something good. Earlier we talked about the impressions of two couples in love who decided to try threesome sex. And not everyone was satisfied with this.