Animals feign shyness to seduce females

Male animals show shy and timid signs during courtship. They do not want to appear violently pushy, as behavioral researchers showed in a study that appeared on Wednesday in the journal ‘Proceedings B’ of the British Royal Society.

In addition, the animals want to arouse the curiosity of potential sexual partners through shy behavior. create a contrast with boastful elements, or they may even be afraid of the female, according to Giovanni Spezie and colleagues from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.

Male golden-crested bowerbirds (Amblyornis macgregoriae) essentially play “peek-a-boo” with the females, hiding on the other side of the bower they have built until they finally stop and show off their bright neck crest. Tragopan pheasants crouch behind a stone before standing up and showing off their brightly colored breast flaps.

The researchers think the males probably want to use their initial restraint to make themselves appear less pushy and threatening. There are reports of forced sexual intercourse in birds, his colleague Thomas MacGillavry explained to the APA: “Sexual coercion is probably relevant for the evolution of display behavior in, for example, pheasants and bowerbirds.” For example, toothed bowerbirds (Scenopoeetes dentirostris) often grabbed females by the neck and did not allow them to leave the courtship site.

The researchers suspect that in some cases the males also hope to arouse the curiosity of their fellow females with such maneuvers. Moreover, the initial restraint makes the later presentation of its true splendor all the more spectacular. Finally, some men are also afraid of the opposite sex, as the researchers explained. In some spiders and praying mantises, if the males are not careful, they eventually become victims of ‘sexual cannibalism’. (saw/sda/apa)