A male Japanese macaque monkey has been observed attempting to mate with two female sika deer in a rare case of inter-species mating behaviour.
Inter-specie mating (Photo: Alexandre Bonnefoy)
Scientists have caught two animals from completely different species having consensual s*x for the first time.
A new paper, titled ‘Interspecies sexual behaviour between a male Japanese macaque and female sika deer’, describes what is thought to be one of the first ever recorded instances of “reproductive interference” between two very different animals.
The new paper reported the mating behaviour between two wild animals – a male Japanese macaque and a female sika deer in Japan. In this case, there appeared to be no coercion and both of the animals appears to behave as if the approach was consensual.
Japanese macaques have in the past been known to ride along on deer. But the researchers say that the monkey in the new study “showed clear sexual behaviour towards several female deer”.
The scientists say that the most likely explanation for the strange behaviour is “mate deprivation”, a theory that suggests that animals that don’t have access to females are more likely to show such behaviour.
That may have been encouraged by the fact that the two animals already play together and co-operate, and that the macaques were entering breeding season, the scientists speculated. As such, it might just be a s*xual manifestation of the play already seen.
Watch the video clip below;