Resumen de Young female monkeys get frisky with deer
It's a kind of monkeying around. Adolescent female monkeys mount deer and rub themselves on their backs, apparently to practice sex when they are still too young to be chosen by adult males. Earlier this year, biologists reported observations of a male Japanese macaque mounting sika deer and trying to mate. Now female macaques have been seen mounting these deer in Minoo, Japan. Noëlle Gunst and colleagues at the University of Lethbridge, Canada, recorded five adolescent female macaques mounting deer a total of 258 times in a two-month period. Adolescent females in this species of monkey are sometimes seen mounting other females or males and soliciting for sex. These encounters, known as consortships, are thought to be a way to practice and develop adult sexual behaviors. Gunst even claims they allow the female monkeys to experience sexual reward through genital stimulation. The deer-mounting behavior is related, Gunst believes. It has only been seen during the mating season and is similar to consortships between monkeys. Female monkeys often rubbed their genitals on the back of the deer and would also gaze at them and emit high-pitched vocalizations, like their typical calls when on heat.
