Some years back, Olivia Judson wrote articles for the NYT on oddball sexual practices among animals. She later wrote a book uunde the moniker "Dr Tatiana", with a BBC short series. I highly recommend all of them. For the TV series, she makes the most if it, dressing up for the part.
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We may be animals.
But we are not snails, octopi, bed bugs or turtles. We are also not penguins, bonobo monkeys or horses. We actually have choice and a great deal of freedom.
The question remains. What will we do with that freedom?
Happy Valentine's Day y'all!
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Heard at a bar —-
Female: how about coming to my house for a drink ?
Male: What’s the address?
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" ...the [octopus] mating ritual neared its end, the female sneaked closer to the male, rapidly extending her two front arms. The typically brown-colored male quickly turned white, attempting to flee. She strangled him, then hauled his dead body to her den...where she ate him".
I wish I'd read articles of this kind years ago before spending much of my time and money on Freudian psychotherapy to help resolve my relationship problems.
Perhaps I may have been an octopus in a previous life which may help explain why I've avoided getting too close to women in this one.
I need to leave the past behind and get on with it.
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As a primatologist it is noteworthy that non human primate males dominate { some prosimian species the females are dominate } and are not monogamous, as are the females, and although there are many styles of courting rituals, particularly among bonobos, sex is not confined to the opposite gender. As a matter of fact, among bonobos almost anything goes as sexually. How they manage to keep this out of the many NG Goodall films is through deft editing because it seems to occupy a good part of chimpanzees daily recreational pastimes both wild and captive of both sexes. So instead of snails and turtles why not look to the other primates for comparison or maybe that's a little too risqué for the proper New York Times.
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This was depressing!
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Ain't love grand?
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Nature is red in tooth, claw, tentacle, and (for species that procreate by traumatic insemination) apparently phallus as well.
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I’m thinking that male octopuses need to start a chastity movement. Poor guys.
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After reading this, no woman should complain.
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@Bobotheclown Nor should any man, considering the "date and dinner" strategy of the octopuses.
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@David Your comment made me laugh! Thank you!
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No woman should complain about what?
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I wouldn't exactly put the matings and relationships of humans in the top tier.
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Can't imagine whose job it is to observe all this. I guess we should thank our blessings that we evolved into the creatures that we have- at least for reproduction purposes. It could have been much worse.
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We are animals btw. Meanwhile back to chocolate I bought for myself.
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Priyanka has a good sense of humor.
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Ok, let's go over it again imo what history has taught us.
We have evolved from the animal kingdom, specifically most recently the great apes and share some of their mating habits.
What not to do? the extremes ie the far right, women should only be in the bedroom and kitchen and should submit to every mans desire.
On the other side the far left, women should be dominant and will not be as long as man exists or at least not enslaved.
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Turtles logon romantically.
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PLUS the males AND females all die QUICKLY in most species after reproducing.
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And then there were the mice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6V7D4BC78c&list=UUenPxdEw6YIYqNk6JSby3zg&index=31
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@Robert Roth awwww
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From an evolutionary perspective, what is a chicken?
It is an egg's way of making another egg.
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Well it always cracks me up when right wingers claim there are only 2 genders.
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@Patricia
Funny. I recently read a NYT comment correcting another comment for not referring to “same sex marriage” as “same gender marriage”. So apparently, it is not only the right wingers who don’t know up from down these days.
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Male chimps do what among humans would be called rape by violence when they can't seduce the female.
With the bonobos they are our closest living relatives.
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Wow, sexual cannibalism in the pages of the NYT.
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Is this why female turtles become lesbian?
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@Angelo C You couldn't blame them, really.
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All these animals are doing is trying briefly to impregnate each other, by any means possible, often violently. I would think it more interesting to learn about species that mate for life, mates like penguins who are able to reconnect with each other year after year after many months separated from one another in the vast ocean, etc.
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@Roberta Most of the so-called 'mate for life' species were stories made up by people trying to encourage permanent human marital relationship. As we've learned more and more we find that 'it ain't necessarily so!'
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Well that was unnecessary and minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
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No Valentine on Valentine's Day? Well, most of us didn't have a groundhog on Groundhog's Day and for 4 years we didn't have a president on President's Day. And I never will be in Labor on Labor Day...
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I don't know... Valentine's Day is still pretty bad.
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I identify most with the Octopus.
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@Christina - So how many partners have you devoured?
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@David There were no complaints afterwards ;)
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Perhaps limiting sex to reproduction to ensure survival of the fittest is the most efficient strategy. After all, parenting is limited to the time the progeny can make it on their own—life spans vary a great deal in the animal kingdom—houseflies usually only live for 24 hours, fledglings can fly in a limited time, tortoises (reptiles) can live a long time, but “parenting” ends with the deposit of their eggs, etc. Mammals seem to have the longer burden of offspring, human maturation requiring the longest time. No romance or “courting” (as we know it) for the “lower” animals—humans, specially in the West, have made the process terribly complex. Maybe the “lower” animals have it better. They operate on instinct.
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I'm cheering on the octopus.
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Why does the author link love to reproduction?
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@reader. Good question. Nature does not. For “her” the survival of the species is the test all must endure, maybe including man. We haven’t been here all that long. Dinosauers existed for longer, until an extinction came along and they were not fitted to survive. They say cockroaches did. Who knows if we will pass the test—or die carrying nonesensical placards.
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@reader Because in the animal kingdom, reproduction *is* love.
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@reader
What makes you think Valentine's day has anything to do with love? It is pure commerce in pursuit of
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"Traumatic insemination."
Makes spending Valentine's Day alone seem like a privilege.
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"She strangled him, then hauled his dead body to her den, where, Dr. Huffard presumes, she ate him."
I hate it when that happens.
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@LarryAt27N
Will have to remember this next time I order calamari.
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The pictured turtles are definitely not painted turtles.
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True. The smaller one, at least, is a Red-Eared Slider. Can’t tell for sure about the larger turtle.
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@Dave Aldridge What are they, then?
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@Dave Aldridge I think the larger one is a painted turtle. The smaller is definitely a red-eared slider.
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The editor of the Science section has a great sense of humor this Valentine's Day. Thank you!
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See Olivia Judson (who columned here in the NYT a while ago)'s book "Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice for All Creation" for some diverse (to say the least) mating strategies in nature!
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Should I disregard the article about chocolates and roses being a bad idea?
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The old male painted turtles remind me of Harvey Weinstein.
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Yikes! Regardless of species, males really have a hard time with romance.
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Sounds like the animal kingdom needs a #MeToo movement....
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Valentines is a mating ritual or a marketing ploy to part you from your money while making many people feel bad about themselves?
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Obviously as God intended.
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@atheist - She was not thinking straight! :-)
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@Dr. Professor Actually eating the male after insemination offers a genetic survival advantage.
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@atheist. Not “God”—Mother Nature.
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Personally, the (hermaphroditic) snails sound like they have the best deal going.
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@Easy Goer - I am not a lawyer and I do not play one on TV, but in some states it is may be illegal. This DIY approach may not fit with state regulations. :-)
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