vellavu
Scooby
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Doe! Deer and Macaque Caught Monkeying Around
Too much monkey business? A young male Japanese macaque — a tailless monkey with distinctive cheek pouches — was recently observed mounting and performing sexual actions on the backs of female sika deer on Japan's Yakushima island.
The monkey clambered onto the deer and thrust his pelvis repeatedly, in typical copulatory fashion, and chased away other monkeys that approached the deer, researchers described in a new study.
Although sexual monkeyshines between different species are relatively common in the animal kingdom, this behavior is most frequently seen between species that are closely related, or between distant species that are in captivity, according to the study authors. This male macaque was part of a group of males on the island that were of lower social standing, and his affinity for hoofed partners might stem from restricted access to available females, they said.
The monkey clambered onto the deer and thrust his pelvis repeatedly, in typical copulatory fashion, and chased away other monkeys that approached the deer, researchers described in a new study.
Although sexual monkeyshines between different species are relatively common in the animal kingdom, this behavior is most frequently seen between species that are closely related, or between distant species that are in captivity, according to the study authors. This male macaque was part of a group of males on the island that were of lower social standing, and his affinity for hoofed partners might stem from restricted access to available females, they said.
