Now, why does this surprise anybody?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22516331/
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Now, why does this surprise anybody?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22516331/
I think cats are the same way. My boy cat grooms the girl before and after humping.
Sure he's dickless but, he still likes humping air while holding his sister by the neck.
^^^^lol
I heard this on NPR today. Don't penguins also pay for sex, per Jenny's old signature?
Let me put it this way..... who doesn't?
one way or the other
I wish I was a Macaque, living in a hot spring, receiving daily groomings and matings by various males. Aaaaaaaah, one can only dream....
Ummm....
Yeah, I don't see what makes "grooming" a currency. I think it would be better analogized to foreplay, wouldn't it?
The penguins, on the other hand, had a much more solid currency based on rocks.
And thanks for the new sig Katrine!!
"Gumert found after a male grooms a female, the likelihood that she will engage in sexual activity with the male was about three times more than if the grooming had not occurred."
Hmmm, interesting...
I wonder if this behavior generalizes to human primates?
Ladies, do any of you find your male hair stylists irresistible after a hairdo? :-\
Hmm, and the monkeys don't know about "Foot Massages"
Do you really have to ask? ::)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqbyv...eature=related
No shit! That "report" was just about the most ridiculous thing I've heard all week. It IS technically foreplay, not some effing business transaction. ::)
"And when the female supply is higher, the male spends less time on grooming ... The mating actually becomes cheaper depending on the market," Gumert said.
The market.... :rotfl: No, they get more ass for less work because w/so many females and the male company spread so thin the broads are starved for affection.
My roommate actually said:
"That's just like some gross old guy going "Hey - do you want a back rub? I give great backrubs.""
Although, Susan, I was mistaken about the penguins. They were not Galapagos Island penguins, like I said, but Adelie penguins. Oops.
Monkey whores. They should be arrested:D
I agree that it is foreplay or at least is the eqivalent of the monkeys getting to know each other over drinks. They can't talk so this could be the equivalent of the guys hitting up the girls in the local singles bar. I'm sure that the female monkeys could all get together and groom one another if they wanted to. They don't need to trade grooming for sex. There's just no need for that. Now, if the males were bringing them bananas or something that would be different.
Silverback is correct about extra effort required by the male of the species given the abundance of sperm and the scarcity of eggs.
Even in primates, though, there is usually something much more tangible that must be exchanged to be of real value to the female. My guess is that there is a direct benefit to grooming that the females can't get any other way, such as removal of lice or other parasites. That's a valid service that has a tangible worth in terms of disease prevention and general health.
This is related to the broader practice of "mate feeding," where males offer up food to the females as an incentive to breed in primates. This extends down to the insect level. On the insect level, mate feeding is virtually required to assure the survival of the young because of the huge cost in energy for the females to carry the young.
What seems to be uniformly true in nature is that males must share resources (or skills) to induce mating behavior.
There is an entire sociobiological hypothesis about the incessant, even self-destructive professional drive and ambition of human males vs. those of human females that exists specifically because the males are seeking to acquire as many resources as possible during the mating period. The fatality rate of the males vs. the females during this period was also entirely lopsided.
This hypothesis, if true, strikes me as one that was more useful during earlier stages of natural selection where survival resources were genuinely scarce and there was not a Taco Bell on every corner. Our brains, however, are still constructed to behave in a manner consistent with this old wiring.
I don't see it. I think people are nit-picking over the word "pay". When you consider that in barter systems there are no coins, trade of service for service is a valid barter.
As for what the females "could" do... the basic assumption behind all evolutionary genetic behaviors is that the behaviors evolved because it is a behavior that is successful in the gene pool. Grooming each other would get the job done, but having the males compete apparently is a better reproductive strategy. /shrug
I've known women that seemed to need backrubs to get turned on enough to start sexual activities. Unfortunately none of them have been working dancers. :)
I don't know if that is grooming or just attention-grabbing or some type of pre-sexual stimulation. But they do get wet!