Passend zum klassischen Weihnachtsessen bei sicherlich vielen Familien hier etwas zum Sexualleben der Truthähne oder Puter:
This particular study was sparked by the observation that a male turkey is just as likely to mate with a life-size model as a living and breathing female. If a male turkey happily mates with a life-size model, the researchers must have wondered; does that mean he would also hump, let’s say, a turkey head on a stick? The scientists, Martin Schein and Edgar Hale from the University of Pennsylvania, didn’t start out with the head-on-stick straight away though – that would have been ridiculous. So they first removed some less obviously present body parts, such as the legs and wings. But even when the fake female was deprived of all her limbs expect for her head, the males did not seem to lose interest. Therefore, the researchers concluded, “the head alone provided both sexual arousal and orientation cues to the male turkey.” Once this was established, they wanted to know if the fake turkey head had to resemble an actual head in order to arouse the male. Apparently not. “Variations in the characteristics of the head, ranging from detailed carved features to a simple featureless teardrop shape, did not adversely affect sexual responses of the male turkeys.”
Das Bild dazu:
Was Truthähne sexy finden
Truthhähne haben also ein sehr selektives Merkmal entwickelt, das aber wahrscheinlich durchaus seinen Dienst tut: So viele Putenköpfe stehen ja nicht ohne dazugehörigen Körper in der freien Natur.
Da kann man doch über unsere etwas differenzierteren Attraktivitätsmerkmale eigentlich eher froh sein.
Alles Evolution 