andy@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Andy Freeman) (01/17/88)
In article <6852@ihlpa.ATT.COM> you write: > Second, I'm sorry to be a poor sport, but I am kind of skeptical >of coercive duck mating behavior. Where was this documented? >How hard did the female fight? If it were a violent fight resulting >in broken feathers, it would hardly be an evolutionary advantage. In the cases I'm familar with (friend observed the behavior), there is no apparent evolutionary advantage, nonetheless, the male ducks gang-rape a female duck until she escapes or they get bored, long after she dies. I think the flock size is stable. I'm sorry, I don't have a published reference or a learned explanation. (It happens in Northfield, Minnesota.) Why don't people believe that animals and humans have behaviors that aren't advantageous? -andy -- Andy Freeman UUCP: {arpa gateways, decwrl, sun, hplabs, rutgers}!sushi.stanford.edu!andy ARPA: andy@sushi.stanford.edu (415) 329-1718/723-3088 home/cubicle
caeri@arisia.berkeley.edu (;;;;0000) (01/20/88)
In article <969@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> andy@rocky.stanford.edu (Andy Freeman) writes: >In article <6852@ihlpa.ATT.COM> you write: >> Second, I'm sorry to be a poor sport, but I am kind of skeptical >>of coercive duck mating behavior. Where was this documented? >>How hard did the female fight? If it were a violent fight resulting >>in broken feathers, it would hardly be an evolutionary advantage. >In the cases I'm familar with (friend observed the behavior), there >is no apparent evolutionary advantage, nonetheless, the male ducks >gang-rape a female duck until she escapes or they get bored, long >after she dies. I think the flock size is stable. I'm sorry, I >don't have a published reference or a learned explanation. (It >happens in Northfield, Minnesota.) When I went to Carleton College in Northfield,MN, I saw these duck rapes with my own eyes. It was pretty disgusting & traumatic for me to watch. 1 of the most memorable aspects of my 2 years there. I have no idea why they happened, except possibly population pressures. Yes, the females were sometimes assaulted to death. Even when they didn't die, it was clear the females were unwilling. A single female duck would be assaulted by several males. She usually would struggle & attempt to escape, unless she was too tired or injured. Interestingly, the same duck population exhibited normal pair mating behaviour which was both graceful & pleasurable to watch. (No voyeurism jokes, please... :) I always wondered when the ducklings hatched which 1's were the products of the gang rapes & how anything so cute & fuzzy could result from such atrocities of nature. But, then, nature isn't always pretty, is it? Cheers, Carrie