The amount of sex some species have boggles the mind.
How much sex is too much sex?
What animal can mate for 14 hours straight?
Which marine creature uses the largest penis in the world to copulate?
Let’s find out.
We are going to start with dolphins because, like humans, we know they have sex just for
fun sometimes.
Animals who engage in sex for reasons besides reproduction tend to have a lot of it, because
sex feels good.
Dolphins are a prime example of this.
They will copulate even if the female cannot get pregnant at the time.
What makes the amount of sex dolphins have even more surprising is not just that they
do it a lot, but how many times it can occur within a short period.
When a male wants to mate he begins posturing in front of a potential partner.
If successful, the dolphins will line up stomach to stomach and intercourse will begin.
Dolphin sex is rather quick though as the act is normally over in under a minute.
But here is where things get crazy.
Dolphins conduct many rounds of intercourse in a very short amount of time.
Researchers have recorded two dolphins having sex 15 times in 15 minutes.
That number alone is more sex than most animals will have in a year, or even in their lifetime.
And remember, dolphins don’t just engage in sex for reproductive purposes, but each
one of their short bouts can be a pleasurable experience as well.
The next animal you’ve probably never hear of, but unlike dolphins, the sex between these
animals can last a long time.
We’re talking a really, really, long time.
The brown antechinus are marsupial mice that live in Australia.
For the amount of time they live, they have a ton of sex.
Females mate with as many partners as possible allowing for multiple sexual encounters in
a short period of time.
However, there is only so much time in a day, and since the brown antechinus sex last around
14 hours, this is a limiting factor.
Males begin mating once a year and go at it for a whole month.
During this time all the male does is have sex.
And remember, each time he engages in the act, it can last for up to 14 hours.
The male brown antechinus are so focused on sex that they barely eat, sleep, or do anything
else for a whole month.
Once two brown antechinus are done mating, they will rest for a brief period of time
and then go in search of their next partner.
However, all this long sex takes its toll on the body, and the male brown antechnius
literally dies from exhaustion after the sex filled month.
This means that at the beginning of the month the male is a virgin, and at the end of the
month he is dead from having 14 hour sex dozens of times.
You have to wonder… is this such a bad way to go?
The brown antechinus is a small mouse, but our next species is large, aggressive, and
horny.
Actually it would be more apt to say tusky as the next animal on our list of most sexually
active species is the walrus.
Male walruses can weigh up to 3,700 pounds.
When they are ready to mate, which is frequently, they will make loud vocal sounds that click,
pulse, and whistle.
The largest and most powerful male walruses have a harem of females that they have sex
with.
This actually happens underwater, probably because it would be too dangerous for the
massive animals to have sex on land, due to the danger of someone being crushed.
Female walruses tend to mate only once every two to three years, which means if the male
wants to mate more frequently, he needs a large harem of females.
That being said, the male walrus has the largest penis of any animal in the world.
When erect the walrus penis can reach up to 30 inches, which is used to impregnate as
many females as possible during mating season.
So, when it comes to walruses it is the males of the species who are doing most of the copulating.
Our next species is often considered to be the king and queens of the savanna.
However, what makes lions especially unique is their mating habits.
A pride of lions can be made up of as many as 30 individuals.
However, not all of them are able, or allowed to mate.
When a lioness goes into heat she is only fertile for around four days.
And you know what that means.
If she wants to get pregnant, she needs to have a lot of sex.
Since four days isn’t a very long time this means that lions mate several times an hour
when the female is in heat.
This is one of the highest frequencies of any species.
Having sex multiple times an hour can be exhausting, but the lions keep at it as the window for
reproductive success is short.
The interesting thing is that after the four days of nonstop sex, the lioness may still
not be pregnant.
In this case the lioness goes back into heat about two weeks later and the sex starts all
over again.
This means that every two weeks the lions are going at it like rabbits until the female
gets pregnant.
And speaking of rabbits, these animals have become synonymous with having massive amounts
of sex.
Unlike most animals rabbits are fertile year round, and can have multiple litters a year.
They also don’t need to be in heat to reproduce as the act of sexual intercourse is what causes
a female rabbit to ovulate.
A female rabbit allows male rabbits to have sex with her about 14 out of every 16 days.
This means for every two days of rest, the female rabbit may have had two weeks worth
of sex.
The male rabbits on the other hand are good to go whenever.
So, if the female will allow it, the male rabbits will have sex every day.
The short-beaked echidna is another species that has a lot of sex.
But it is the ritual that leads up to, and the way that they have sex that makes each
round particularly unique.
The females of this species of echidna are actually the ones having the most sex.
This is because she will have a line of about 9 males following her around for an entire
month waiting for her to be ready to mate.
There is no sex during this time, but once the female is ready, the echidnas go crazy.
This next part is incredibly weird, so prepare yourself.
The female short-beaked echidnas have a forked reproductive tract.
This would make sex with a single penis very difficult, but luckily for the males of the
species, they have a penis with four heads.
And it gets crazier.
After one of the heads ejaculates semen into the female, the male will insert a different
penis head that still contains sperm into her and go again.
This means that each time the echidnas mate they are actually having sex four times.
And if you do the math, this means that for each time the female has sex with one of the
nine males that followed her around for a month, she will have sex with 36 different
penis heads.
Our next species wants to have a lot of sex, but since during mating season males outnumber
females around eight to one, only a very few get lucky.
The Australian giant cuttlefish meet in the same location known as “Pointy Lowly”
every winter to engage in a massive orgy.
The amount of copulating that occurs during this time in the large gathering of sex crazed
cuttlefish is astounding.
The problem is that the males outnumber the females by a lot.
This means that sex between cuttlefish can be challenging if you are not the biggest
and brightest in the orgy.
But even the smaller cuttlefish want to have sex, so they will actually change their coloring
to disguise themselves as females, and enter the orgy incognito.
By doing this they may eventually run into an actual female and get the chance to reproduce.
And with so many males swarming around in the cuttlefish orgy, it is inevitable that
a female will have sex numerous times during that one session.
This provides the opportunity to have a lot more sex than any animal in a monogamous relationship
during the course of their life.
It probably comes as no surprise that primates have a lot of sex.
Humans are primates, and we definitely have more sex than most animals, because we do
it for pleasure as well as reproduction.
But our distant cousin the bonobo puts our species to shame.
Bonobos are a species of apes that live in the Congo.
What makes them particularly unique is that they have the most sex out of any other primate
species.
And bonobos aren’t picky with who they have sex with.
They will engage in intercourse with the opposite sex as well as the same sex.
They obviously have sex for more reasons than just reproduction, and although some of the
unions may be for pleasure, many scientists believe that bonobos have frequent sex to
strengthen bonds within their societies.
The copious amount of copulation happening within a group of bonobos could be to show
hierarchy and dominance in the group, relieve tension and conflicts, or just to solidify
bonds with one another.
But the amount of sex itself is not the only fascinating thing about bonobos.
They engage in sexual activities in some pretty creative ways.
Researchers have recorded bonobos having sex while swinging and in other acrobatic positions.
Sex for bonobos seems to be as creative as it is fun or meaningful.
This is so true that a National Geographic biologist named Frans de Waal even said: "Whereas
the chimpanzee shows little variation in the sexual act, bonobos behave as if they have
read the Kama Sutra, performing every position and variation one can imagine."
It is also interesting to note that there is much less conflict in bonobo societies
than in other primate species.
This includes humans.
So, perhaps we could all learn something from the bonobos and practice more love instead
of war.
Or at least more sex instead of fighting so much with one another.
This brings us to humans.
Where do we stand in the amount of sex our species has compared to others?
You may be surprised to learn that humans actually do engage in more sex than most species.
Not compared to bonobos, but compared to most other animals, we engage in carnal activity
more frequently.
This is because we really enjoy having sex.
It feels good, and we live in a society where sex sells, and therefore, is encouraged.
It is unclear whether other species experience orgasms the same way as humans do, but for
species like dolphins and bonobos that have sex just for fun, it would seem there is some
pleasure attached to it.
A 2017 study found that humans are estimated to have sex around 54 times a year when sexually
active.
This is just over once a week.
And although other species may have the same, or more sex than us, we are unique in that
humans don’t mind spreading out our copulations throughout the year.
We also normally don’t have so much sex that it kills us, which allows us to have
more sex over the course of our lives than some other species—talking about you brown
antechinus.
Now check out “What Exactly is an Orgasm?”
Or watch “What Happens to Your Body if You NEVER Have Sex.”