Nature
PUBLISHED
Nature is sometimes spectacular – just think of the Grand Canyon and the Northern Lights. Other times, it’s more on the nasty side of things. This one is part of the latter ones.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Scientists have caught a male Japanese macaque monkey trying to have sex with not one but several Sika deer. The confused (or not, we don’t want to kink-shame it) monkey can be seen in the video hopping on the back of a deer, which wasn’t really fussed by the humping primate, and then trying it again with a second deer, who was less than happy and shook the macaque off.
The macaque was also curiously possessive of the deer, guarding them and shooing off “rival" monkeys. Interspecies mating has been seen in captivity and in the wild, but it remains rare.
The study is published in the journal Primates and is only the second study related to sexual behavior between animals of different species. The other study covered an Antarctic fur seal sexually harassing king penguins and then eating them.
The researchers have an explanation for the unusual behavior: lack of female macaques. The individual belongs to a group of peripheral males, so this idea has a bit more footing than suggestions that the male is learning how to mate.
If this is your thing, you can check the video out below.
