The 'adultery' of animals

Adultery is not only confined to the world of humans but also in the world of animals. The adulterous person may be because he or she feels depressed by his partner but catches new and exciting things in the lover, and the result is the unhappiness in the family where the children Children are often victims who suffer from consequences . But what is the ' adultery ' of animals?

1. The " adultery " of the starling starling bird

For starlings, Cornell researchers have discovered that the starling bird 'adultery' is not for its benefit but for the sake of . chicks!

The female starlings can ' pair ' more with other male birds in the herd because these individuals can help them raise their babies. (These birds are collaborative ' fathers ', the pairs of birds that are raising children are helped by other individuals in the flock). These ' mistress ' males bring food back to young birds and protect them, raising the survival rate of young birds.

Usually the female birds leave the herd as adults, but most male birds spend their lives with their families. Most of them have a blood relationship with their 'husband' bird and its young birds. In fact, as nurturers, they have contributed to improving their breed.

Some females ' adultery ' with other male birds if they find these males have genetic similarities. These strange birds can pass on new genes to the chicks, although they do not have any support in raising children. Having more exotic genes means having a healthier generation of children. However, how can children find genetic similarities, a phenomenon that is also common in other species, so far there is no answer.

Starling (Photo: Wikipedia, VNN)

Dustin Rubenstein, a former alumni of Cornell's School of Neuroscience and Behavior, is now a research associate at the Cornell School of Anthropology and Miller Research Fellow at the University of California-Berkeley. 'This is the first study to show that individuals in the same community have relationships with other auxiliary males and gain direct benefits (such as child support) and indirect benefits (like that). The female system has a better gene) but they do it in different situations'.

Usually if a caught female bird is ' adultery ' then its ' husband ' bird will punish it by neglecting raising children or even leaving the female bird feeding her child alone. However, the starling bird, a popular bird in East Africa, has collaborative ' fathers ' so females have many motives to ' betray ', because even if it is caught It still has help from other members of the group. However, starlings are still less ' misguided ' than those of other collaborating children. These species have 40 to 60% of their offspring as a result of ' adultery ', but only 14% in starlings.

2. The general purpose of ' adultery '

If humans are ' adultery ' because to satisfy his own feelings or her feelings, then animals are completely different. Like the starling starlings, the females of other animals also ' adultery ' for the purpose of protecting their children and seeking support in raising children.

For primates and lions, females have to have sex with males as much as possible. Being innate, male primates and male lions are ready to kill children when the children in the nest are not their children. But when the children have many partners, they don't know what their children are, so they don't kill their children anymore and as a result, the children can feed many children.

Male lions may be willing to kill children when the children in the nest are not their children (Photo: Wikipedia, VNN)

In addition, by having sex with many males, the females and their offspring are protected by many males. The hawk is able to help the child support him after the male mate with it. The red-winged birds also mate with a lot of males, because each male thinks that he is the father of the cubs, once an enemy comes to harass, those fathers are willing to discharge themselves to protect them. me

3. The battle between ' guys '

The act of childless love caused the battle between males to be fierce. Because males want to protect their race and can pass on their genes for later life, it must have tricky mating skills. Male dragonflies have a lot of feathers and small holes on its genitals. These parts are used to remove the sperm of other male dragonflies launching.

When the crab mate, first the male crab releases the semen into the female's pouch. The semen immediately froze to turn into a semen-blocking valve, the purpose of which was to prevent the sperm of previously released males from combining with the female's eggs. After defeating the opponent's " germ ", the male is assured of ejaculation.

4. The battle between ' she ' and ' guy '

With the rebellion because of the 'noble goals' of the children for that generation of offspring, the males not only ' fought ' with its ' love affair ' but also fought against the children.

There is a fierce battle going on between the sexes, in which the male wants to ensure that the offspring is its own, and the children want to find the best father for their children. The more fierce the battle is, the more powerful the weapon is, such as in male ducks, they have developed a huge and complex penis.

Sometimes this leads to strange things: the male genitalia is full of thorns, helping it to anchor inside the female when they try to fertilize. When that becomes too much, the thorns can hurt the female and damage the breeding process.

The Swedish team at Uppsala University, led by evolutionary biologist Goran Arnqvist, found that children also did not give up, it confronted that reality by developing genital organs. even more aggressive than the thorny organs of males. The rate of change in ' weapons ' in this gender war is also a possible explanation for the evolution of new species.

In addition, the level of fidelity of children is also related to the size of testes of wild animals: the more the female looseness, the bigger the testes of the male, so that the sperm has the strength to swim. coming together with eggs. Pokehaide said that these bizarre mating behaviors of animals are due to the dyslexia of the offspring.

Minh Minh

Compiled from Softpedia News, Science and Culture / China, VNN