1 Tahrcountry Musings: Aggressive Sexual Pursuit of Males by Female Topi Antelope in Kenya.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Aggressive Sexual Pursuit of Males by Female Topi Antelope in Kenya.

Sexual attitude of Topi Antelope( Damaliscus lunatus jimela) in Kenya is a reversal from our usual idea about sexuality. Here aggressive females pursue the males. Lead scientist Dr Jakob Bro-Jorgensen who did the research says “some pushy females were so aggressive in their pursuit of the male that he actually had to physically to attack them to rebuff their advances." Most males refuse the advances of previous partners. This increases the chances of fatherhood with the widest possible number of partners. Each female would mate, on average, with four males, while some reached 12 different partners. These findings are contrary to conventional sexual selection theory. The research was undertaken in the Masai Mara area of Kenya. Full details appear in the journal Current Biology.

No comments: