A Little Bit of Color Turns Barn Swallows into Macho Males
	By darkening the breast feathers of male New Jersey barn swallows with a common marker, researchers from the Arizona State University showed that birds with naturally darker feathers attract more females than birds with lighter feather coloring. The experiment further proved that dark feathers can also boost the testosterone levels and may even help the birds lose weight. In a previous study carried out three years ago by the same team, it ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2008, 06:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Orchids Deceive Bees with Irresistible Lures
	A new study suggests that orchids exploit male bees for their own purposes by imitating the scent of bee females. This little trick played by orchids relies on the instinctive urge of male bees to mate when detecting the scent of a female insect. As the male falls in the trap set by the orchid, its attempt to procreate ultimately ends by pollinating the orchid. The same study also points out that some of the scents emitted by certain sp ... [read more >>]
	27 May 2008, 07:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Urine Treason: Inbred Males Have No Chance
	Inbreeding is extremely harmful from a biological point of view. We all carry bad mutations, but they are hampered by another healthy gene variant in the sets made of two genes in our genome. In inbred animals, bad mutations have a huge chance to be transmitted to the offspring in a double set and to manifest. These effects manifest from weaker biological traits (physic, immunity, and so on) and severe genetic diseases to dead ev ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2008, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Unusual Complex Sex in Octopus Species
	Octopuses may be the brains of the sea, but not the sea lovers. They really give a new perspective to the phrase "the male is just a tab of the penis." A new study made at the University of California, Berkeley, and published in the journal "Marine Biology," shows that at least one species of octopus& ... [read more >>]
	02 April 2008, 05:12GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Loving Dads Induce Early Menstruation in their Daughters!
	There's a strong reason to be a good father, especially in the case of the baboons. Even if baboon fathers have several "wives", they will have more grandchildren if they take care of their children while young. The researchers at Duke and Princeton universities describe this finding on a population of Kenyan yellow baboons on a research published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." " ... [read more >>]
	05 February 2008, 06:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

When Mothers Have More Sex, Daughters Are More Fertile
	A female should have sex once, fertilize her eggs and that's it. But many researches show that, in the animal kingdom, females have much more sex, even if bouts of mating consume energy that could have been used to produce more offspring. The natural selection should remove such behavior. But a new study published in the "American Naturalist" shows that frequent mating females have an evolutionary advantage: their daught ... [read more >>]
	09 January 2008, 03:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Curious Triangle of Love
	They are separated since the Jurassic era (175 million years ago) by the Atlantic ocean, still the European common lizard (Lacerta vivipara) has been found to display the same love game as a North American lizard, the side blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana). "The triangle of competing strategies may be far more common than previously recognized--and may even shape the way humans behave," said lead author Barry Sinervo, professor ... [read more >>]
	05 October 2007, 06:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Urine and Orgasm: Just in Humans?
	If you thought that only some human freaks can reach orgasm through urine (a sexual deviation called urolagnia, urophilia or undinism), you'd better find out that our evolutionary relatives are 'better' than us: in capuchin monkeys, this is so for the entire species! These monkeys splash their feet and hands in urine to achieve comfort or have sex. There are many species of monkeys which "recycle" their urine t ... [read more >>]
	24 September 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Can the Rules of Cannibalistic Sex Change?
	There are some people who act like crazy in their search for sex. In many spiders, mating is a risky game, as the (usually) much bigger female will kill and eat the male during the mating process. In jumping spiders, sexes are quite similar in size, still the larger partner will eat the smaller. A new research made on the East African Evarcha culicivora, a jumping spider feeding on blood-filled mosquitoes, will not be hampered by the c ... [read more >>]
	24 September 2007, 14:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Males Anticipating Sex Produce Better and More Sperm
	We have known ever since the Pavlov experiments that a method of learning is conditioning: when we associate something with food, we start salivating and so on (remember the Pavlov's bell and dog?). But who had thought that conditioning also works for sex? At least for quail males, making them better breeders! Male quails placed in environments they started associating with mating sired more offspring than their untraine ... [read more >>]
	06 September 2007, 15:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sexism Is Widespread in Nature
	Not only human males are "pigs" and "jerks" and not only women are "bitches". A recent research made at University of California–San Diego shows sexism is rampant throughout the natural world, especially amongst vertebrates. "Females living in the wild routinely fall victim to everything from stereotyping to exclusion from pack activities to sexual harassment," said lead researcher Jennifer Tannen. ... [read more >>]
	27 July 2007, 14:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Pheromones, Good Just for Sex Meeting, not Mating
	We, humans, are obsessed with pheromones, even if they do not influence much the behavior in our species. But we still dream of a love elixir that would offer us a lot of sex. In other mammals and many insects, this could be the case. Moth pheromones guide males towards the females even on the darkest nights. Pheromones recognition systems appear very specific and they are thought to be important in the evolution of mating barriers and ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 05:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hornier Male Means a Better Male
	Ancient ferocious Celtic warriors knew why they put horns on their helmets (it was the Celts, not the Vikings, that adorned their helmets!). Because a bigger horn means you are a better male. This is real, at least in the case of the alpine ibex. A new research found a perfect correlation between horn size of mature alpine ibex males and genetic diversity. Greater genetic diversity is linked to a greater chance of survival. ... [read more >>]
	08 June 2007, 05:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Carrots, Longer Life and a Lot of Sex
	Have you ever thought about the link between carrots and sexual success? A team at the Universities of Glasgow and Exeter has found that the plant pigments called carotenoids, besides slowing down the aging rhythm of the males and thus prolonging their life, makes them more attractive to females. Carotenoids usually give plants yellow and red hues and animals eating those plants, due to these pigments, turn themselves more colorful a ... [read more >>]
	11 May 2007, 18:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sex Trips for Lousy Males
	“The Lion King” presented to the public the meerkats, a type of South African mangoose, through the character of Timon. But unlike Timon, real meerkats do not keep company to warthogs and do not live solitary but in social groups, up to 30 individuals, with a complex cooperative behavior and a strict hierarchy. But in this rigid society, dominated by alpha males and females, researchers found something inconceivable: lousy subordinate male ... [read more >>]
	25 April 2007, 06:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Later Sex Is Better for Females but Not for Males!
	The theory says that the earlier you start sex life, the larger is the number of kids you will have. At least in the animal world. But this concept, one of the biggest assumptions in behavioral ecology, has been proven to have its cracks, as showed by a team from the universities of Bristol and Cape Town. Its research focused on green woodhoopoe, an African cooperative bird species that live in groups of 2-12 individuals in whi ... [read more >>]
	06 April 2007, 02:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Bagpipe to Get Sex
	Do you know what's the similarity between Rudolf and those kilted Scots? They use a bagpipe to impress the females. A group of European biologists from Berliner Leibniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, Ilomantsi Game Research Station in Finland and the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, have found that the male reindeer's large air sac, influencing emitted vocal sounds, is a key factor of his m ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2007, 08:27GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Twin Sister Means No Sex for the Brother
	Having a twin sister proves to be a huge reproductive disadvantage for males. At least for the saiga antelopes roaming the Eurasian steppe. A three years research found that male twins who have a sister present a lower, sub-optimal birth bodyweight than those with a brother, a trait they will display also at maturity. In mixed-sex twins, the male fetus does not experience the substantial amount of growth that occurs in a ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2007, 07:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia