Mating is the instinct of animals, and in order to pass on their genes, all animals have resorted to housekeeping tricks. Some will sing and dance to the opposite sex in order to gain the favor of the opposite sex; others will fight with their peers in order to obtain the right to mate.
When males have gained hard-won mating rights, what they have to do is not to develop feelings with females, but to pass on their genes as much as possible.
Different organisms adopt different strategies during the mating process.
In the case of giraffes, for example, they live in an unsafe environment and are often preyed upon by large predators. We know that giraffes are very vulnerable during mating and are easily hunted by predators. For giraffes, if the mating time is too long, it will lead to an increase in mortality, and the best way is to complete the mating process as soon as possible, so the mating time of giraffes is very short.
But there are also some creatures that have a very long mating time, and this animal is the Falkland beaver.
The Falklands are small cats weighing about 1.5–2 kg and 70–100 cm long, about the size of a domestic cat. However, unlike domestic cats, the male Isle of Man beaver has very long organs, about 18 centimeters, which is 1/6 of its body length.
Scientists have found that the reason why the organs of male Isle of Beavers are very long is because of the sexual selection of females. Sexual selection is a behavior that occurs between organisms, and usually males accept sexual selection from females in addition to sexual competition with the same sex.
Different female biological options are also different, with female peacocks mating with males with more colorful tails; lionesses mating with more powerful males; and female gardener birds preferring males with more elaborate pavilions.
Female Isle of Beavers are selected differently from other organisms and are more likely to mate with males who have been mating for longer periods of time. During the breeding season, they will mate with the male at least 5 times before determining whether to reproduce with the male. If the female is not satisfied during this process, they may "empathize" at any time.
In order to obtain hard-won mating rights, male Horse Island foxes will extend mating time as long as possible, of which up to 8 hours or so.
Male Isles beavers survive for so long because they have a bone in their organ that was once widely distributed among mammals but was lost in evolution. But the male Isle of Foxes remained, and with this bone they could prolong their time.
Biologist Leslie Dickie said that the extra-long bones of the reproductive organs help the male gain the favor of the female during the mating process, so the gene will be preserved by natural selection.
Males with short mating time are not favored by females, so that their genes cannot be passed on and disappear.
The reason why the Falkland beaver can maintain a long-term mating state is that there are almost no large carnivores in the area where they live, and the Falklands, which weigh between 6-10 kg, are the largest carnivores in the region.
This ensures that the Isle of Man beaver will not die even if it is used for mating for a long time, so this gene can be preserved.
We know that the purpose of animal mating is to reproduce offspring, and the mating time is short, which is easy to make it difficult for the other party to conceive, for example: the time for lions to mate is very short, but in order to make the female as pregnant as possible, the male will be able to mate up to 50 times a day.
In order to allow the female to conceive, the Tibetan antelope will live with the female every day during the estrus period, which will not only allow the other party to conceive, but also avoid the female from conceiving the offspring of other males.
But if the mating time is longer, then the probability of the female conceiving will be greatly improved, so that her genes will be passed on, so the number of mating can be reduced.
That is to say, the behavior of living things is not actually determined by themselves, but a certain survival strategy chosen by nature, in which the strategy conducive to survival and reproduction will be retained by the organism, and the strategy that is not conducive to the survival and reproduction of the organism will be destroyed.
From the current point of view, the reproductive strategy of the Falkland fox is still successful.
Known locally as the "king of the jungle", the Falkland beaver lives in tropical rainforests below 2700 meters above sea level, subtropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forests, and feeds on catching other small animals.
But because people cut down trees and destroy forests, their habitat is getting smaller and smaller, and many are fragmented. In madagascar, about 80% of the original trees have been destroyed, and the primary forests are gradually replaced by farmland.
In addition, the Falklands also compete with the kittens for food, and the number of Falkland beavers is decreasing under the influence of multiple environments. The current situation of the Falklands beaver is not optimistic, and the IUCN has listed it as a vulnerable creature.
Fortunately, the current situation of the Falklands beaver has received attention from humans, and local personnel have begun to protect and breed the Falklands beavers.