Animal Kingdom's Longest Mating Times: Up to 21 Days?
This topic may make some people feel 'shameful', but in reality, survival and reproduction are the most fundamental pursuits for all living beings. Of course, the human species, with its evolution and development, has evolved intelligence and civilization. Besides material needs, people now pay more attention to spiritual needs, making life more meaningful. Some couples choose to live together until old age, these are choices.
However, there is no such idea in the animal kingdom. Their most fundamental pursuit is to reproduce offspring. Even if they pay the ultimate price, they will not hesitate. For example, many insects have same-sex attraction, the most typical are spiders and praying mantises. Male praying mantises are small, and may be captured and eaten by female praying mantises at any time. Nevertheless, when the mating season comes, male praying mantises will actively and enthusiastically search for female mantises to mate with, in order to leave more 'seeds', until they are accidentally caught and eaten by female mantises.
Animal kingdom's 'endurance champion' is the masked bandit rat, which is a very mysterious cat species. It has many aliases such as the Masked Island Cat, the Malgash Lynx, and the Masked Island Cat. This small mammal left a deep impression on people. Although it is less than one meter long, its little brother can grow to 18, occupying one-sixth of its length. This animal's longest mating record is 8 hours. Female Masked Island Cats are very enthusiastic and actively mate multiple times a day. If the male Masked Island Cat performs poorly, it will be abandoned by the female. Afterwards, the female Masked Island Cat will continue to look for other partners until she is satisfied.
The 'sex selection' of the Masked Island Cat in the long evolution has led to its characteristics. Individuals who perform poorly will be selectively eliminated. In the long run, those who can survive and pass on genes are those 'performing well'
In the animal kingdom, the Masked Island Cat is not the strongest. In Australia, there is another small animal, the wide-footed pouch rat. This animal belongs to the wide-footed pouch rat family in the marsupial order. The School of Queensland Technology discovered two new wide-footed pouch rats and named them 'Mainland Dusky Antechinus' and 'Tasman Peninsula Dusky Antechinus'.
These two small animals are very strange. After each mating season, more than 50% of the male wide-footed pouch rats die. In this sense, the lifespan of the male wide-footed pouch rat is very short. Scientists found that the mating time of the wide-footed pouch rat is very unusual, the longest record can reach 14 hours. Male wide-footed pouch rats are very enthusiastic. This small animal's breeding period is generally about three weeks. During this time, the testosterone level in the male wide-footed pouch rat is extremely high, and finally most of the male wide-footed pouch rats 'die with their energy' - this is really a small animal that fights with its life!
Next up is the Tibetan antelope, which is also known as the 'elf' on the Snowscape Plateau. The mating method of Tibetan antelope is very special. In some sense, it can last for 21 days. Around December every year is the mating season for Tibetan antelope. Their mating period can be roughly divided into three stages:
The first seven days: All Tibetan antelopes are divided into males and females, and females gather to watch the show while male Tibetan antelopes begin to PK and compete for mating rights;
The second seven days: At this time, the male Tibetan antelope winners have emerged, and they can start their careers. During this time, male Tibetan antelopes 'keep' 10 or more female Tibetan antelopes and mate with them every day, but in fact, the time for each mating is only less than one minute.
The third seven days: At this time, the male Tibetan antelope is exhausted, due to the fact that the amount of food available in the season is not sufficient, and they have reduced their appetite. The male Tibetan antelope is retreating. At this time, it allows some female Tibetan antelopes to leave, until the last one, the male Tibetan antelope has completed its task for this year.
In the long history of evolution, every animal has adapted its own survival and mating methods. This is also due to the competition between males and females, and in the process of sex selection, certain aspects of excellence are reflected, for example, many birds need males to evolve beautiful feathers, so that they have competitiveness. The party that chooses will shoulder more tasks or responsibilities in the relationship, such as incubating eggs or raising young; while the other flamboyant party will 'walk away' and may not even know who their offspring are.
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