Chicks Put Out Early
By Hannah Isom
When it comes to sex, hens would rather get it out of the way over the morning papers than be pecked at after dark. New research has shown that female chickens living in a man’s world prefer to initiate intercourse in the morning in order to offset sexual harassment from their clucky counterparts later in the day.As is often the case in humans, the males are the more promiscuous, and their natural instinct is to cast their genetic nets as far as possible. This results in the poor lady chickens being bombarded with a bunch of cocks hoping to work on a first come, first served policy.
More than 90% of sexual encounters in chickens are instigated by the male. They become much more eager in the evenings, when the females have laid their eggs and are at their most fertile. But the results of this joint study by the Universities of Stockholm and Oxford have shown that giving the cockerels a bit of cock-a-doodle-doo at the crack of dawn is enough to pacify them way into the evening.
Hanne Løvlie from Stockholm University reckons “sexual harassment in the evenings in male-dominated groups may just be too much for the hens”.
In coups where the male/female ratio is more evenly balanced, the hens also prefer to canoodle at night. However, in testosterone rich environments, the survival of the fittest instinct kicks in and the harassment becomes all too much for the females.
This is the first time that a chicken sex study (don’t ask me how many there have been) has shown that changes in the intensity of sexual harassment trigger changes in the hens’ sexual behaviour. This goes to show that for chickens at least, putting out really can pay off.
Get more from Hannah at her page.
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Image: Christopher Bruno
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