Male pond skaters use scare tactics to force females for sex: Study
August 11th, 2010 - 2:32 pm ICT by ANILondon, Aug 11 (ANI): A recent study has shown that male pond skaters use scare tactics to force females to have sex with them.
According to BBC News, the animals play on the female fear of predators to threaten unwilling partners into sexual submission.
Professors Chang Han and Piotr Jablonski of Seoul National University have discovered the astonishing sexual behavior of the humble pond skater.
Female pond skaters generally call the shots in sexual encounters because they have a “chastity shield” that covers their genitals.
Which means that males can have sex only if the female allows them to.
However, Han and Jablonski observed that males cause the water’s surface to vibrate during courtship rituals, creating tiny ripples. These ripples attract predatory fish lurking beneath.
The male persists in this seemingly reckless action until a female “consents” to sex.
Jablonski said that this study provided crucial new evidence concerning “the antagonistic co-evolution between sexes”.
The scientists found that females succumbed to male advances much more quickly if they had previously experienced a predator attack.
Mark Brown of the University of London said, “This is a very exciting discovery. We’ve studied the sexual habits of pond skaters for decades, but this is totally unexpected.”
The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications. (ANI)
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Tags: chastity, consents, courtship rituals, female fear, female pond, genitals, jablonski, journal nature, new evidence, pond skater, reckless action, ripples, scare tactics, seoul national university, sex study, sexual behavior, sexual encounters, sexual habits, sexual submission, university of london