Sex without borders

The measure of the adaptability of the animal, its success is fertility. And we expect that in the reproduction season, animals will give all the forces to choose and conquer a sexual partner or partners. Scientific literature is full of messages about how different animals and birds cope with this responsible task. However, along with this, scientists are also observed by cases of irrational sexual behavior, including reproductive interference, in which males are trying to mate with an individual of a different type.

We will not discuss messages coming from zoos and other places where animals are in an extreme situation. In the end, what is surprising if an orphan, from childhood, devoid of the care of the elders and grew up next to white rhinos, imagined that he was the rhino himself, and tried to fertilize the female [1]?

In natural conditions, interspecific hybridization, although rare, is happening. For example, modern white bears are the descendants of the Irish brown bear and a polar bear. Hybridization occurred about 30 thousand years ago, perhaps more than once. White and brown bears in our time sometimes intersect, and their hybrids, white with a dark face roam the Arctic. Tetrao medius inter -nations are also known, a grinding of a grouse and a capercaillie. Interperse crossing is not uncommon in the family of Psovy. However, in all these and many other cases, hybridization occurs between close species, representatives of the same kind or family with external similarities. And offspring from such crosses are prolific. It would never occur to anyone that the White Bear, having met a ringleled seal, wants to mate with her. Nevertheless, several years ago there was an amazing case.

The scene is the Subantarctic island of Marion, owned by South Africa. On its coast, the Kerhelensky sea seals Arctocephalus Gazella (hereinafter simply the cats) are arranged on its coast and the royal penguins Aptenodytes Patagonicus are withdrawn chicks. Sometimes the cats for penguins are hunting. In 2006, the naval biologist from the University of Praetoria, Nico de Bruyn (Nico de Bruyn) watched as a sexual but still very young male of the sea cat tried to rape an adult penguin [2]. The floor of the bird remained unknown. It was in December, in the season of reproduction of cats. De Brun arrived at the moment when the penguin lay on his stomach, and the cat on it, making copulative movements of the basin. The series of movements lasted from three to eight minutes and interrupted by recreation periods, during which the rapist held his victim. After 45 minutes, the cat left the bird alone and went into the sea, without even looking back. Observers remained on the shore for another hour, during this time the cat did not return, and the penguin lay, not making attempts to get up or leave, although he held his head vertically. An adult beast weighs 100–120 kg, and a penguin - from 10 to 21 kg, so the bird had a hard time. Nevertheless, the penguin survived and was, in general, healthy, only breathed heavily. A brief inspection showed that the copulation did not occur, the Predator's penis did not get into the cloaca. (Cloka of birds is an expanded final part of the back of the back, the ducts of the ureters and the gonads open; this hole has both males and females.)

Until 2012, de Brun and his colleagues observed three more cases of sexual violence, made by cats over penguins [3]. This always happened in the season of reproduction of cats, from late November to the beginning of January, on the southern and eastern shores, where the density of animals is the highest. There are also colonies of propagating penguins. All episodes began the same. A young adult cat is chasing a penguin (the floor of the bird has not been determined once), overtakes and overturning on the stomach, and he flopes on top. Attempts of copulation alternate with periods of rest, and at this time the cat presses Penguin with flippers to the ground. In two cases, out of three, the copulation took place with a high probability, in the third - of course, since there was blood between the legs of the bird. One of the penguins desperately resisted, and then the rapist killed him and ate. Two other penguins survived this adventure, they found the strength to get up and get to the relatives. The bird, which the cat injured, was able to even fight off the petrels flying to the blood, until other penguins arrived in time for the aid.

Males of cats reach puberty at the age of 3-4 years, but they receive their own territory, and therefore access to females, as a rule, no earlier than 8 years. Unsatisfied sexual arousal and increased aggression can push them to irrational behavior.

Seeing for the first time the cat crushed Penguin, de Brun decided that the predator caught prey, and then changed the hunting behavior to sexy. However, after the case when the cat did everything in the reverse order: at first he began to rape, and then killed and ate, de Brun and his colleagues abandoned this hypothesis and proposed two others: reproductive interference and training.

Reproductive interference, as we recall, involves mating with an individual of a different type, usually without a courtship ritual and often with coercion. It can occur in the case when the population density becomes too high, competition for females increases, and young males have no chance of mastering them. On the island of Marion, all these conditions are fulfilled, however, the object of interference, according to researchers, should still resemble the individual of the same type, and the penguin does not look like a female navigo. The cats could not cut off like that, scientists decided and suggested that young males learned such a manage with penguins, looking at the elders.

There was clearly more than one beast on the island. Males of cats live up to 15 years and cannot look young for six years, and young males have always raped penguins. Kotikov was photographed, but the photos did not help identify animals. Lastogenes are generally well trained. Perhaps they perceive exercises with a penguin as educational copulation. At first, one beast was trained like that, then the other adopted this technique. Since everything happened on one small island, it was not difficult for the cats to peep one after another, it is unlikely that they independently developed a similar manner of handling penguins. Four famous episodes occurred in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2012, the intervals between them are just such that the younger male saw, and the next season reproduced.

However, four episodes are not enough to draw conclusions. The behavior is rare: the island is small, there are a lot of observers on it, and it is difficult for cats to hide their intimate habits. In addition, the researchers wanted to wait if there would be reports of such behavior of other types. They did not have to wait for a long time.

We move to the other end of the Earth, to the Japanese island of Yakusima, where a special subspecies of the Japanese macaca fuscata yakui lives. The island is small, and a significant part of it is under the protection of UNESCO as a worldwide natural heritage. In this territory, numerous groups of Makak live in close proximity to the local spotted deer Cervus Nippon Yakushimae. Deer complement their diet with fruits, which monkeys are dumped from the trees, sometimes monkeys of excrement are eaten, so they always stay next to Macaca groups. Some macaques sort out the wool and even ride them on horseback. Other species of monkeys and ungulates connect similar relationships, they were observed between Macaca Mulatta macaques and the Indian Zasa Unicolor Indian. But on Yakusim, they once outgrown into something more.

In the fall of 2015, just in the Makak breeding season, a photographer of the French publishing house Issekinicho, publishing a book about Japan, Alexander Bonfoy, came to the island. For several weeks he watched the monkeys, photographed them and saw how the young macaque maca tried to mate with at least two female deer. At first, Makak sat and scattered scattered, then determination was reflected on his face, he jumped onto his female deer, who was literally a step away from him, made several copulation movements and jumped out. Copulation did not occur, possibly due to differences in morphology and animal size, but the females remained ejaculates on the back. The whole episode took literally a few seconds, the deer reacted to him with a calm calm, and then licked the seed fluid. The researchers were then glad that she received a portion of valuable protein.

And Makak, encouraged by success, tried to jump into another female deer, but she did not like this behavior, and she ran away, dropping the monkey, while looking restlessly.

Bonfo watched animals for an hour before they disappeared in the forest. During this time, Makaku repeatedly jumped onto the female deer to her great displeasure. What happened the next day, the photographer does not know, because the business trip is over, and he left.

However, Alexander Bonfo photographed all events and photographed on a video camera [4]. Ethologists from the Strasbourg University of Marie Pelé and Cédric Sueur, as well as a Japanese macaque from the University (Japan) Masaki Simada (Masaki Shimada), joined the discussion of what they saw.

Between situations on the islands of Yakusima and Marion there is a certain similarity: young, active males, during the period of mating deprived of access to females, and constant close neighborhood with representatives of another species. However, Makak, unlike sea cats, did not show aggression to the female deer, on the contrary, tried to protect them from other males of monkeys. His behavior was more like a game: macaques and so often rolled out on deer fun, and this one simply added several additional movements.

The authors of the work do not allow the thought that Makak did not make out who he was dealing with. They also do not think that he tried in this way to comprehend the wisdom of sex - in such measures there is no need, since there are a lot of monkeys around, showing an example. Researchers tend to explain the behavior of Makaku with a “mating hypothesis”, according to which males, devoid of access to females, tend to demonstrate sexual behavior. This can be masturbation, homosexuality, or, as in this case, attempts by interspecific relations.

Reproductive interference between distant species is rarely observed, the case of Macaka is only the second. Whatever the reason, the researchers hope, analyzing this episode, to advance in the understanding of the evolution of interspecific sexual behavior in the world of animals and zoophilia in people.

Natalia Reznik

1. NewScientist.com/article/mg15120390-300-ORPHAN-ELEPHANTS-HO-ON-THA-RAMPAGE

2. De Bruyn Pjn, Tosh C. A, Bester Mn Sexual Harassment of a King Penguin by An Antarctic Fur Seal // J Ethol. 2008. 26. 295–297.

3. Haddad wa et al. Multiple OCCURENCES OF KING PENGUIN (AptenodyTes Patagonicus) Sexual Harassment by Antarctic Fur Seals (Arctocephalus Gazella) // Polar Biol. 2015. 38. 741–746.

4. Pelé, Bonnefoy A., Shimada M., Sueur S. Interspecies Sexual BeWeen Between a Male Japanese Macaque and Female Sika Deer // Primates. 2017. DOI: 10.1007/s10329-016-0593-4.