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Surely the answer as to why it evolved is obvious - it takes more energy during development (and a lot of selective pressure during evolution) to make a reprodu

by bpb 17y ago

Surely the answer as to why it evolved is obvious - it takes more energy during development (and a lot of selective pressure during evolution) to make a reproductive system that produces pleasure only during reproductive sex acts than one that can produce pleasure in non-reproductive situations. Hence, masturbation exists. I love the statistic that male Macaques spend 1-6% of their metabolism on production of ejaculate though.

KiwiNige 17y ago
In the book The Human Zoo, Desmond Morris states that you see very little masturbation or other weird sex in wild animals, but you often see it in zoos and other captive/domesticated animals. He puts it down to dealing with being in an unnatural environment and makes parallels with people living in cities.
anamax 17y ago
> Surely the answer as to why it evolved is obvious One of the recent results in human fertility is that daily ejaculation results in healthier sperm and greater fertility. Causality is rarely simple.
- lyso 17y ago
  > daily ejaculation results in healthier sperm and greater fertility. Causality is rarely simple. Sure, but I think here you are being overly adaptionist. Put another way, if we lived in a world where daily ejaculation did not improve sperm quality, would we still expect animals to masturbate? I would say yes. It's just occurred to be that was in fact answered by the comedian, Jasper Carrott: Q: Why do dogs lick their bollocks? A: Because they can.
  - anamax 17y ago
    > Put another way, if we lived in a world where daily ejaculation did not improve sperm quality, would we still expect animals to masturbate? I would say yes. We probably do live in such a world. The "sperm quality" issue probably doesn't come up with animals that spawn at a given time of year. Note that "sperm quality improves with masturbation" is a partial explanation for why masturbation is pleasurable for those species who do.

by bpb 17y ago

KiwiNige 17y ago

In the book The Human Zoo, Desmond Morris states that you see very little masturbation or other weird sex in wild animals, but you often see it in zoos and other captive/domesticated animals. He puts it down to dealing with being in an unnatural environment and makes parallels with people living in cities.

anamax 17y ago

> Surely the answer as to why it evolved is obvious One of the recent results in human fertility is that daily ejaculation results in healthier sperm and greater fertility. Causality is rarely simple.

lyso 17y ago
> daily ejaculation results in healthier sperm and greater fertility. Causality is rarely simple. Sure, but I think here you are being overly adaptionist. Put another way, if we lived in a world where daily ejaculation did not improve sperm quality, would we still expect animals to masturbate? I would say yes. It's just occurred to be that was in fact answered by the comedian, Jasper Carrott: Q: Why do dogs lick their bollocks? A: Because they can.
- anamax 17y ago
  > Put another way, if we lived in a world where daily ejaculation did not improve sperm quality, would we still expect animals to masturbate? I would say yes. We probably do live in such a world. The "sperm quality" issue probably doesn't come up with animals that spawn at a given time of year. Note that "sperm quality improves with masturbation" is a partial explanation for why masturbation is pleasurable for those species who do.