I’m sure you’ve heard of the common myth that only humans and some monkeys, such as bonobos, have sex for pleasure. If this were true, it would make sense that only these animals would perform oral sex; and up until recently, it was thought that only these animals perform oral sex, with the reasons for this behavior simply being pleasure. However, researchers recently found fellatio behavior in fruit bats, which suggests that there may actually be a biological benefit to such a behavior.
Libiao Zhang and his colleagues at Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China set up cages imitating a bat’s natural habitat. They placed twenty pairs of males and females in the cages and observed their mating behaviors via infrared cameras, which were fed back to the lab. Typical behaviors were observed, but what surprised the researchers most was when the males mounted the females from the back, the females would bend down to lick the male’s penis. Seventy percent of the females in this experiment performed fellatio on the males, suggesting it is a common behavior. Because licking helped to maintain the male’s erection and increased lubrication, fellatio caused prolonged intercourse. On average, every second of fellatio resulted in an extra six seconds of intercourse.
But why would females want to increase length of copulation if they don’t do it for pleasure? Researchers have come up with a few different theories, which all suggest a biological benefit to the individual female. One theory is that it may facilitate the transport of sperm, thus making reproduction more successful. Another theory suggests that it is a way for females to keep the males occupied, and thus prevent them from reproducing with rival females. Due to the antimicrobial properties of saliva, fellatio may also be a way for fruit bats to protect against sexually transmitted diseases; after all, they don’t use condoms.
So fruit bats may not be having sex and performing fellatio for pleasure purposes, but the behaviors are indeed evident, implying that fellatio contributes to more than just a happy male.
Read the full article here
Posted by: Crystal Young (6)
Wow. Just... wow. Really? This article is intense. What a great find.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the reasons for fellating... Since when is saliva anti-microbial? Is it just in bats or something... I thought the mouth was one of the most bacteria infested places on the body?
And also, why do they intend to seek out reasons why the bats dont fellate for pleasure. It's not like bats go into sex thinking "man I want some babies"... they're not conscious of the outcome, sex is just instinctual, right? Aren't they just in heat, getting horny, and then start going at it? What other reason is there if not for pleasure? I thought only humans would be conscious of the actual outcome of sex, and even then, only because of education. You don't have to answer every question, I got pretty tangential... but good post!
-Alex Mojcher
huh. Well that threw me back. First off nicely written, I liked the style. I have also heard that certain types of dolphins have sex for pleasure as well. It would be hard to think of an experiment to test to see if was for pleasure or not. Can you think of a way to set that up? I was also very thrown back by the fact that our saliva is antibacterial. That is interesting! Is it bats or humans as well? Well awesome job!
ReplyDelete-Alex Bourdois
I would like to third the fact that this article is an awesome find. I'm sure that STDs exist in animals. Are there really known STDs in fruit bats? I agree with Alex M. in that the instincts kick in and its on. I can't imagine if sex was a horrible experience for the initiator it probably wouldn't be on the to-do list. I'd guess there would be some pleasure involved in at least most cases. We humans assign the biology terms for reproductive strategies. The bats just get it on.
ReplyDeleteposted by: Jess Bouchard (1)
This is a great post. I agree with Alex M. that they could be doing this for pleasure, but I also think it makes sense that they would do this to prolong copulation to increase reproduction potential. I don't think sex is actually pleasurable for all species. Actually, for female cats it seems pretty painful (males have sharp barbs on their penis that stimulate the female's cervix to induce ovulation). I had never heard of fellatio in animal species, so it was interesting to read about how it is a biological benefit to these bats.
ReplyDelete-Posted by Sarah Benjamin
This was a very interesting article. How did you come across it? Do the researchers have any ideas for experiments they would run to test their theories for why the females would want to increase the copulation time? I found it interesting that they believe the bats saliva has antimicrobial properties. Did they do any tests to determine this?
ReplyDelete-Emily Crete
Good post… I’m surprised, to say the least. It seems like the bat must be doing this for pleasure. I’d be interested to see whether the other theories prove to be significant. Did the study say if fellatio had a direct affect on reproductive fitness?
ReplyDelete- Heather Gore
In response to Alex M.'s comment, I had the same question about saliva being antimicrobial. I couldn't find much on the web about it relating to bats, but the article did mention that the male bats would lick their own penis after sex as a way to clean themselves. I agree that sex is instinctual, but as Sarah mentioned, it isn't always pleasurable. The article mentioned that the bats only mated for four minutes maximum. If it were pleasurable, I would think that it would last longer!
ReplyDeleteHaha this is the best post so far hands down. Anyone know anything about bat brains? I think it would be beneficial to this study if they maybe measured the brain activity during such acts; preferably the activity in the pleasure centers of the brain. Also does anyone know if the females secrete fluids for copulation, or is lubrication needed? Lastly, any reports on ‘happy females,’ or is this strictly a girl on boy behavior? Thanks for an awesome post
ReplyDeleteJackie Connolly