Picky Hens Punt Bad Mates’ Sperm

[n2doc]

By Wired UK August 4, 2011 | 11:00 am | Categories: Animals, Biology


By Mark Brown, Wired UK

Feral chickens have developed an effective countermeasure to avoid being fertilized by a forceful, sub-standard mate.

Zoologists from Oxford University observed hens forcibly ejecting sperm after copulation, as if to lower a male’s chances of fathering the next generation, and putting a selective pressure on chicken dads.

On average, 80 percent of the ejaculate is expelled. Large quantities suffered a higher risk of ejection, but a larger proportion of smaller ejaculates were expelled leaving less sperm to fertilize an egg.


“Sperm ejection imposes on males an evolutionary dilemma,” says Rebecca Dean, of Oxford University Department of Zoology in a press release. “This trade-off between ejection risk and amount of sperm ejected could generate opposing selection on the evolution of sperm allocation strategies in males.”

more
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/chicken-sex-sperm/

[Enrique]

1. that's hot n/t

[Poll_Blind]

2. Which came first, the spittin' chicken coochie or the pushy cock?

:shrug:

PB

[Blue Owl]

3. Don't know -- but do know the cuckold came last

n/t

[Poll_Blind]

4. LOL! (rimshot) n/t

PB

[necso]

5. A form of post-"mating*"

female sexual-selection? I was aware of this in insects (in a sexual exchange where the male transfers a sperm-sack, it's a question of getting rid of the sack, not "loose" sperm); but I wouldn't be surprised to find it even more widely, at least in some form.

Female sexual selection plays an important role in evolution** (not that all such effects are necessarily desirable)... as hard as this may be for the individual male to accept.

*: Where it isn't entirely consensual, mating seems an overstatement; but it's a commonplace usage.

**: Rare trait versus the "best" of common trait is especially interesting.

...

On another note entirely:

Many thanks, Guan Shi Yin.

(Long have I searched; rarely have I found.)

[necso]

6. I've tried to use familiar terminology

and perspective here ("trait"); ie, I would more typically use a term like "(expressed) attribute"... a lengthy discussion.

[rug]

7. Chicks and money shots.

This story has everything.