Whats the Point of showing violent tendencies while mating?
In: Biology
Evolution rewards results, i.e. offspring. We’re fortunate that massive pleasure is what most motivates us to produce those results, but it’s not the only viable way. Other species may be stuck with different mechanisms. And even humans sometimes do terrible things to one another when driven by the urge.
Have you heard them scream? Perhaps those are happy screams.
It’s survival of the fittest, and if you can prevent a certain female from immediately mating with another male, your sperm’s chances of success are higher
I can recommend the book The evolution of beauty by Richard Prum.
In short. Female animals choose their male. Other males uses what’s called Sexual coercion to reproduce their genes. Ducks is a prime example. The duck is a vicious little beast.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_coercion_among_animals
Humans are sort of a unique situation, we often have sex for pleasure. Reproduction might be an unplanned side effect for many people.
In an animal, sex is about one thing a chance to reproduce and pass on their genes. Holding the female down so another male can’t interrupt, or she can’t get away before your genes are deposited in her reproductive system
It works. Male agression has been explained but female works even better. If I (a mantis or a spider) eat baby daddy right after he did what he came to do, I’ll get a nice big snack, which feeds the eggs for almost no energy. He got to mate with me, so the genes for being a tasty little bug will continue to the next generation.
Plus the population really doesn’t need as many males for as long as at least some of them manage to run away faster than they came.
For many animals the initial “survival of the fittest” benchmark is satisfied prior to mating. Only the strong are allowed to mate in order to ensure strong offspring. Cats are a familiar animal that have a shocking mating ritual. Basically the male must prove that he’s worthy to mate by overpowering the female… even if she’s in heat and “wants” to mate. If he can’t overpower her, he doesn’t get offspring. This ensures that her kittens are from a stronger stock.
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