Science: Sexual Shouting By Female Monkeys May Help Male Achieve Climax

Oh, dear. I never would have guessed.

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals.

Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found.

Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex. Their exact function, if any, has remained heavily debated.

To investigate the purpose behind these calls, scientists at the German Primate Center in Göttingen focused on Barbary macaques for two years in a nature reserve in Gibraltar.

The researchers found that females yelled during 86 percent of all sexual encounters. When females shouted, males ejaculated 59 percent of the time. However, when females did not holler, males ejaculated less than 2 percent of the time.

To see if yelling resulted from how vigorous the sex was, the scientists counted the number of pelvic thrusts males gave and timed when they happened. They found when shouting occurred, thrusting increased. In other words, hollering led to more vigorous sex.

The researchers studied this for two years and, guessing, at a cost of several million dollars.

Seems like an awful lot of work just to not-so-subtly tell your wife she shouldn't lay there like a veal.

Next Up: A multiyear study to determine if oral copulation by female sloths of their partners' genitals might correlate with increased productivity by the male as well as an increased probability of monogamous behavior.

Thanks to The Sniper, who weighs in.

posted by Ace at 03:00 PM

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