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youthislife
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Here’s where evolutionary biology and mate selection comes in — and where the story gets dark. Many duck species skew male, meaning females can be pickier in their choice of mate. For a male duck to land a female, he must boast colorful plumage plus have an elaborate dance mating ritual and beautiful mating calls. In other words, he needs to be a beauty, plus a great singer and dancer.
Most males don’t measure up. So what’s a mediocre guy to do?
Forced copulations are “pervasively common in many species of ducks,” writes Prum. These are socially organized “gang rapes” that are “violent, ugly, dangerous and even deadly” and even sometimes end in the death of the female.
This represents a “selfish male evolutionary strategy that is at odds with the evolutionary interests of its female victims and possibly with the evolutionary interests of the entire species,” Prum writes. To spread their seed, these ducks are upsetting the natural order of selection"
Most males don’t measure up. So what’s a mediocre guy to do?
Forced copulations are “pervasively common in many species of ducks,” writes Prum. These are socially organized “gang rapes” that are “violent, ugly, dangerous and even deadly” and even sometimes end in the death of the female.
This represents a “selfish male evolutionary strategy that is at odds with the evolutionary interests of its female victims and possibly with the evolutionary interests of the entire species,” Prum writes. To spread their seed, these ducks are upsetting the natural order of selection"
The horrible thing you never knew about ducks
On the Venn diagram of strange animal mating behaviors — from lobster golden showers to garter-snake orgies — duck sex is on the border between cartoonish and sadistic. That’s right, our beloved ma…
nypost.com