MATING WITHOUT PENETRATION: BAT SEX IS MORE LIKE BIRD SEX

Scientists have filmed what seem to be the first known instances of non-penetrative reproductive sex in mammals, in bats living in a church attic in the Netherlands and at a Ukrainian bat-rehabilitation centre. The study began when Nicolas Fasel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2023-11, Vol.623 (7989), p.899-899
Main Author: Vaidyanathan, Gayathri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Bats
Eptesicus serotinus
Females
Penis
Sex
Sperm
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Scientists have filmed what seem to be the first known instances of non-penetrative reproductive sex in mammals, in bats living in a church attic in the Netherlands and at a Ukrainian bat-rehabilitation centre. The study began when Nicolas Fasel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and his colleagues noticed that the serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus) has a rather large and unusual penis. The e-mail was from Jan Jeucken, a bat enthusiast who is closely monitoring a population of bats that live in a church attic near his house in the Netherlands.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/d41586-023-03565-7