http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/in-nature-fatal-attractions-can-be-part-of-life.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science
This article is about a male Antartic fur seal pursuing a
King penguin as a mate. This article raises two unnatural points that not only
did this seal pursue its natural prey, but it also pursued a completely
different species of a different class of animals. As Mr. Scott observed the
seal pursue the King penguin, once it failed the seal acted out very
aggressively and tore the penguin to shreds. While this seems disturbing it is
not that uncommon in nature, and in fact science has labeled this “misdirected
mating.” Some argue that it is in fact normal behavior as nature is not perfect
and a genetic mutation or some behavioral change can ignite this behavior and
interest in sexual predation. All of this behavior is under the realm of
reproductive interference and occurs in not only mammals but, spiders, worms,
frogs, and birds as well. Although all these do not end fatally, the general
frustration of reproductive interference calls on sexual trauma and has been
noted in several places, one being, the case of seal corpses which are said to
have lacerations on the nose and face from sexual trauma. In this case Dr.
Harris and Dr. Miller believe that the shift in demographics to more male
otters than female otters started this behavior towards seal pups. And in fact
otters are naturally aggressive matters and in fact female otters often die
from sexual trauma.
This
article is significant in understanding the animal mating world. While acts
described in this article are often considered unusual acts of violence and
thought to be some rare occasion, this article proves that “misdirected mating”
and reproductive interference are natural and normal events in nature. It also
points out that like humans, animasl can have genetic mutations, which cause
them to have different attractions to different species, or an environmental
affect such as a demographic affect can affect their choice in mate. Another
thing we have to note is that animal violence as seen here in sexual trauma is
not always preventable and is the natural way of things.
Overall
I thought this article was very interesting, however what was most striking was
the fact that misdirected mating is so common. It is hard to believe that an
animal is so unaware of its surroundings and so unaware of its inability to
distinguish between different species. It sparks an interest in me to see how
animals distinguish how to choose a mate and in the cases of misdirected
mating, how does choosing a mate differ.
The review of Natural Fatal Attractions was very well written. The reviewer represented all the gruesome key points in the article. One in particular was how the reviewer explained that although to us, a seal killing a penguin who refused to mate is awful, it is very common in nature and is known as misdirected mating. She then goes on to explain that it is normal behavior as nature is not perfect and a genetic mutation or behavioral change can cause such abnormal behavior. Another good point is that this misdirected mating happens not just to mammals but spiders, worms, frogs, and birds too. The reviewer also made a good point in giving a seal example where dead seals have lacerations on the nose and face from sexual trauma.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this review was done very well, I think one issue is repetition. In the first paragraph, the reviewer explains the idea of misdirected mating. In the second paragraph, almost the same thing is repeated. Another thing that might have made this review better was the addition of how this misdirected mating is not always fatal, such as a donkey and a horse mating or a tiger and a lion mating.
This article was very interesting and also very sad. The idea that so many animals are killed or being abused due to misdirected mating is sad and something should be done to try and prevent it from occurring.