Sexual coercion among animals

Sexual coercion among animals is the use of violence, threats, harassment, and other tactics to help them forcefully copulate.^[1] Such behavior has been compared to sexual assault, including rape, among humans.^[2]

In nature, males and females usually differ in reproductive fitness optima.^[3] Males generally prefer to maximize their number of offspring, and therefore their number of mates; females, on the other hand, tend to care more for their offspring and have fewer mates.^[4] Because of this, there are generally more males available to mate at a given time, making females a limited resource.^[4]^[5] This leads males to evolve aggressive mating behaviors which can help them acquire mates.^[5]

Sexual coercion has been observed in many clades, including mammals, birds, insects, and fish.^[6] While sexual coercion does help increase male fitness, it is very often costly to females.^[5] Sexual coercion has been observed to have consequences, such as intersexual coevolution, speciation, and sexual dimorphism.^[4]^[7]

^ Smuts, Barbara B. "Male Aggression and Sexual Coercion of Females in Nonhuman Primates and Other Mammals: Evidence and Theoretical Implications". Advances in the Study of Behavior 22 (1993)
^ Stamos, David N., Evolution and the Big Questions: Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters, John Wiley & Sons, 2011; Alcock, John, The Triumph of Sociobiology, Oxford University Press, 2003, p.207-9.
^ Han, C. S. & Jablonski, P. G. "Female genitalia concealment promotes intimate male courtship in a water strider". PLoS ONE 4, e5793 (2009).
^ ^a ^b ^c Gage, M. J. G., Parker, G. a, Nylin, S. & Wiklund, C. "Sexual selection and speciation in mammals, butterflies and spiders". Proceedings: Biological Sciences 269, 2309–16 (2002).
^ ^a ^b ^c Grayson, K. L., De Lisle, S. P., Jackson, J. E., Black, S. J. & Crespi, E. J. "Behavioral and physiological female responses to male sex ratio bias in a pond-breeding amphibian". Frontiers in Zoology 9, 24 (2012).
^ Garner, S. R., Bortoluzzi, R. N., Heath, D. D. & Neff, B. D. "Sexual conflict inhibits female mate choice for major histocompatibility complex dissimilarity in Chinook salmon". Proceedings: Biological Sciences 277, 885–94 (2010).
^ Rönn, J., Katvala, M. & Arnqvist, G. "Coevolution between harmful male genitalia and female resistance in seed beetles". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 10921–5 (2007).

[twenty_eight-1] Smuts, Barbara B. "Male Aggression and Sexual Coercion of Females in Nonhuman Primates and Other Mammals: Evidence and Theoretical Implications". Advances in the Study of Behavior 22 (1993)

[2] Stamos, David N., Evolution and the Big Questions: Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters, John Wiley & Sons, 2011; Alcock, John, The Triumph of Sociobiology, Oxford University Press, 2003, p.207-9.

[one-3] Han, C. S. & Jablonski, P. G. "Female genitalia concealment promotes intimate male courtship in a water strider". PLoS ONE 4, e5793 (2009).

[two-4] Gage, M. J. G., Parker, G. a, Nylin, S. & Wiklund, C. "Sexual selection and speciation in mammals, butterflies and spiders". Proceedings: Biological Sciences 269, 2309–16 (2002).

[three-5] Grayson, K. L., De Lisle, S. P., Jackson, J. E., Black, S. J. & Crespi, E. J. "Behavioral and physiological female responses to male sex ratio bias in a pond-breeding amphibian". Frontiers in Zoology 9, 24 (2012).

[four-6] Garner, S. R., Bortoluzzi, R. N., Heath, D. D. & Neff, B. D. "Sexual conflict inhibits female mate choice for major histocompatibility complex dissimilarity in Chinook salmon". Proceedings: Biological Sciences 277, 885–94 (2010).

[six-7] Rönn, J., Katvala, M. & Arnqvist, G. "Coevolution between harmful male genitalia and female resistance in seed beetles". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 10921–5 (2007).

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