Scientists have named the first mammal that can mate without penetration
[ad_1]
Researchers have discovered the first known mammal to mate without using penetration. And this is a bat.
Scientists say the late bat may be the first known mammal to mate without using penetration.
The corresponding study was published in the journal Current Biology, reports CNN.
Long-eared terns (Eptesicus serotinus) mate by touching their genitals to each other.
The male uses his penis as a hand to push the protective membrane away from the female’s vulva, resembling a “cloacal kiss”.
Credit: Mnolf/commons.wikimedia.org |
Probably all because the penis of a male bat is about 7 times longer than the vagina of its female, and it has a heart-shaped head that is 7 times wider than the vaginal opening. These features make penetrative sex difficult.
The penis cannot penetrate the vagina, leaving “contact mating” as the only option. Such a pattern is common in birds, but has so far remained undocumented in mammals.
Read also: Do bats really drink blood and get stuck in hair? The answer of animal rights activists
Credit: Purpleowlfly/commons.wikimedia.org |
Note that Ukrainian bats “participated” in the study.
A Dutch bat lover installed 18 cameras in the attic of a church in the Netherlands, where a colony of bats lived, and sent 93 mating recordings to scientists. Another 4 videos with bats were recorded at the Ukrainian Center for the Rehabilitation of Bats.
Half of the recorded sexual acts lasted less than 53 minutes, and the longest of them lasted 12.7 hours.
However, scientists have not been able to definitively establish the route of transmission of sperm from a male bat to a female, so the research is not yet complete.
We will remind you that the late bat is one of the two species of bats that live in Ukraine. Listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.
Summer shelters of this mammal are located in buildings: in attics, in wall cavities, chimneys. Brood colonies reach several hundred individuals. Mating takes place in autumn or spring.
Earlier, scientists discovered a bat that was last seen 100 years ago.
Read also: How did dinosaurs have sex?
[ad_2]
Original Source Link