Recently I listened to an introductory social psychology class from Yale on Love and another entitled "What motivate us: sex." I learned that for most animals, males are more inclined to mating than females simply because females know that if the intercourse is fruitful a major energy burden is upon them. Just considering the time burden in the case of a human offspring is relevant: men-time burden 15 seconds, women-time burden 9 months and 15 seconds.
Overall the rule is the bigger the body difference between male and female the less the male will be needed in the post-breeding and the more it will be difficult for him to sleep with a female. For the sea elephant, the male is 4 times the size of the female, and unsurprisingly the male has nothing to do once the mating is over and only ten per cent of them get to copulate (becoming Alpha or Beta males) during their lifetime. Comparatively the male and female emperor penguins have perfectly equivalent body sizes: they share all the breeding and incubating burden and find each other through their vocal chords - no male fighting required.
(why no one ever produced an award winning film on the sea elephant courtship, mating and giving life ritual is presented via the links above)
This is a male seahorse giving birth - the female is 15 to 20% bigger than her male counterpart.
Overall the rule is the bigger the body difference between male and female the less the male will be needed in the post-breeding and the more it will be difficult for him to sleep with a female. For the sea elephant, the male is 4 times the size of the female, and unsurprisingly the male has nothing to do once the mating is over and only ten per cent of them get to copulate (becoming Alpha or Beta males) during their lifetime. Comparatively the male and female emperor penguins have perfectly equivalent body sizes: they share all the breeding and incubating burden and find each other through their vocal chords - no male fighting required.
(why no one ever produced an award winning film on the sea elephant courtship, mating and giving life ritual is presented via the links above)
This is a male seahorse giving birth - the female is 15 to 20% bigger than her male counterpart.
