Usually, when it comes to words such as sex and mating, it is difficult to talk about and is considered a vulgar and shameful thing. However, in terms of the reproductive level of species, the purpose of animal mating is simply to reproduce.
The two animals that have been mating for the longest time
According to scientists' observations, there are currently two known animals in the world that have the longest mating time, one is the Tibetan antelope and the other is the Falkland Island fox.
Tibetan antelope is one of the endemic species of the mainland, mainly inhabiting the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on the snowy plateau of the mainland, and is known as the "plateau spirit". Because the mating season of Tibetan antelopes is around December every year, which is the season when the height angle of the sun is relatively low in the year, the cold and oxygen-deficient environment makes the mating time of Tibetan antelopes each time not more than 5 seconds, but from the whole mating before and after 21 days, it can be said that the quality is not high and depends on the quantity.
Falklands Island fox belongs to small mammals, there are Falklands Musk cat, Falklands civet, Malgash civet cat and other other other names, mainly distributed in the African continent across the Mozambique Channel on the island of Madagascar, whether it is the low-altitude tropical rainforest humid and hot environment on the island, or to the high-altitude dry area, there is a certain range of distribution, especially in the northeast of Madagascar.
Although the Falklands Island fox is small, with a total length of about 1 meter even on the trunk and tail, it is the longest mating time among mammals, lasting up to 8 hours at a time. The reason why the Falklands are so strong is mainly for the needs of reproduction, which is the need for sexual selection.
sexual selection
As far as human beings are concerned, if a man wants to get the heart of his favorite girl, he usually needs to set "high wealth and handsome" as much as possible, and women chasing men often need to be as beautiful as a flower set "white rich and beautiful".
However, in the animal kingdom there are not so many you non my nong, male animals want to obtain the right to mate with female animals, there is only one way, that is, must have a strong physique to gain the initiative, to achieve the transmission of excellent genes, and the most intuitive way to judge whether the animal is strong or not is whether the body size is tall and powerful.
I remember that when I used to watch the animal world and other columns, I would occasionally see the picture of animals tearing up before mating or two male animals dueling in order to obtain mating rights when it was time to breed, which is actually a female animal in order to test whether the "mate" gene is strong or whether male animals show their physical strength or not, and the victor has a group of wives and concubines to obtain mating rights.
Usually, we can identify which animals are male and which animals are female at a glance by comparing the size of animals, for example, males are larger than females in lion herds, and female spotted hyenas are significantly larger than males in hyena herds.
In addition to relying on body size to display excellent genes, animals can also be displayed by their appearance color. For example, in pheasants, the feathers of male pheasants are very gorgeous, but female pheasants are all gray with copper coins, including the usual domestic chickens and ducks, and the male looks much better than the female, which is actually the need for sexual selection.
However, what is more "strange" is that the ability of some Falklands to mate for up to 8 hours at a time is also the need for female sexual selection.
We all know that one of the fundamental differences between humans and animals is that they are good at making and using tools, and because animals get more primitive food in the process of survival, they are more affected by the natural environment. For Falklands Islanders, the longer the mating time, the more energy is consumed, the more it indicates that males are stronger in both energy reserves and foraging ability, and this gene can better adapt to the natural environment, so it is more favored by females.
Falklands are nocturnal animals, sleeping during the day and becoming active in the evening, before living in pairs (monogamy), females almost have to mate with multiple males in a few days to find their "wishful langjun", those who cannot meet their own requirements will ruthlessly abandon until they find the best "mate", on average each pair of Falklands Island foxes occupy about one square mile (about 2.6 square kilometers) of territory, and can be demarcated by the glands near the neck and anus secreting odors.
Why there is a sexual choice
Regarding "sexual selection", Darwin defined it as follows: "effective traits in the process of choosing mates of the opposite sex", that is, individuals of one sex of both sexes compete with other individuals of the same sex in the population for mating, and only the individuals who get mating can reproduce, so that the trait conducive to competition is gradually consolidated and developed.
As mentioned above, whether it is the strength of the male body size in the animal kingdom, or the bright appearance of the color, or even the longest mating time, it is the need for sexual selection to achieve the transmission of excellent genes.
But the transmission of excellent genes is not all done by males, although strong males can produce a large amount of high-quality sperm, but for the vast majority of female animals, each release of eggs is very limited, in order to maximize the use of the limited number of eggs, females have to select those genetically better males as their "mates", which is a powerful interpretation of sexual selection.
summary
Since most males in nature usually do not need to take care of their cubs after mating (such as male lions patrol the territory, lionesses take care of their cubs), as long as they can pass on excellent genes, not as demanding as females, but for females it is different, in order not to waste limited eggs, they have to find more excellent gene individuals to mate in order to facilitate the reproduction of species, which also has some important reasons for obvious differences between male and female animals.
However, the cubs of some animals are raised by males and females together, and some birds (such as penguins, crows, sparrows, etc.) take turns to incubate the eggs at a certain temperature in order to facilitate normal hatching. Since the responsibilities of such animals after pairing are roughly the same, the criteria for sexual selection are the same, so the females and males of such animals are generally the same in size or color.