Sexually rampant voles ruin Yorkshire village's tourist trade

METRO REPORTER - 16th June, 2010

Visitors to Flaxton in north Yorkshire are being forced to take a 10km (six-mile) diversion because of a colony of breeding water voles.

The village’s shops and pub are suffering a trading slump after bridge repairs had to be suspended until the autumn – when the voles have finished mating.

Landlady Lorraine Ritchie, of the Blacksmith’s Arms, said: ‘We’re losing £700 a week and this is the busiest time of the year. We’ve come through the recession and we can’t get on.’

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/831209-sexually-rampant-voles-ruin-villages-tourist-trade

Balinese Teen Marries The ‘Flirtatious’ Cow He Raped

12th, June 2010

NGURAH Alit, 18, of Bali, indoensia, is charged with having sexual intercourse with a “flirtatious” cow.

Alit, of Yeh Embang, Jembrana, was caught shagging the cow by Gusti Ngurah Dinar, who describes Alit as “standing naked and holding the cow’s ass”.

Alit was stood on a mud terrace between two rice paddy fields. When confronted, Alit said he thought the cow was a young and beautiful girl. Says he:

“She was calling to me, making flattering comments, then I had sex with her.”

Not so says the court. She was the innocent party. Noooooooo means no. It’s rape. And Alit is scheduled to get two years bird. He will also pay a fine. And he has been made to marry the cow.

The cow needs to be cleansed. It will be drowned at sea in a Pecaruan cleansing ceremony to rid it of “dirty behaviour”.

Yeah she was asking for it.

http://www.anorak.co.uk/250505/strange-but-true/balinese-teen-marries-the-flirtatious-cow-he-raped.html

Lecturer in bat-sex row is nutrition expert

By Katherine Donnelly
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
A lecturer who filed a complaint of sexual harassment against a colleague who showed her an article about the sex life of fruit bats is a highly regarded expert on clinical nutrition.

Dr Rossana Salerno Kennedy lectures in medical education at University College Cork.

The much-published academic, who has a special interest in nutrition and the elderly, is married to Professor Peter Kennedy, vice president of research at UCC.

Dr Salerno Kennedy could not be contacted for comment yesterday, as Dr Dylan Evans demanded that sanctions imposed on him after the fruit-bats article incident be reversed.

The offending article, published in an academic journal, detailed how fruit bats prolong copulation via oral sex and Dr Evans said he showed it to a number of colleagues on the same day, one of whom complained.

Dr Evans, who lectures in behavioural science, has had a two-year period of intensive monitoring and counselling imposed on him, which he fears will have implications for his chances of gaining tenure at UCC.

Details of the controversy appeared on a number of websites in recent days and sparked international interest.

UCC appointed an external team to investigate complaints made by Dr Salerno Kennedy about Dr Evans' behaviour towards her in the period up to November 2, 2009, the day he showed he showed her the fruit bats article, and about the incident itself.

In her letter of complaint, she said that November 2 was "not the first time Dr Evans has raised sexual subjects with me" and on that day she felt his behaviour was "inappropriate and offensive".

The investigators rejected the complaints about the period before November 2, but upheld the complaint about the fruit- bats article incident, although they ruled it was not Dr Evans' intention to cause offence.

UCC has reacted with anger to the publication of confidential documents. The college said it viewed "with the utmost gravity the fact that confidential documentation concerning an internal allegation of sexual harassment was posted to social media platforms, in contravention of university policy".

The college insisted "the rights of staff who may wish to take similar action in future would also be affected, were confidentiality to be broken."

Dr Evans, who is being supported by the Irish Federation of University Teachers, told the Irish Independent yesterday that he had not released any documents in the case.

He launched an online petition seeking support for the reversal of the sanctions and said he had received letters from leading academics, including Professor Patrick Bateson, Provost of King's College Cambridge.

Irish Independent

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/lecturer-in-batsex-row-is-nutrition-expert-14811250.html#ixzz0oJd0x0TK

Police accuse woman of having sex with horse

POSTED: April 28, 2010

CLYMER - An Indiana County woman has been charged with having sex with a horse, state police at Indiana said Tuesday.

Dovie Lee Kerner, 46, of Plumville also allegedly had sex with other animals including a dog and a pig, court documents state.

The investigation began in November 2008 when it was reported by two officials from the Humane Society of Indiana County, police said.

One of the officials said she received a phone call from a confidential informant who asked her if it was illegal to have sex with an animal. When told yes, the informant said he had a video on his cell phone of Kerner having sex with a horse, court documents state.

Because of Kerner's alleged sexual activities with other men and animals, the informant, who had dated the woman, and his Jack Russell terrier both contracted sexually transmitted diseases, court documents state.

Kerner is charged with two counts each of obscene and other sexual materials and performances and disorderly conduct and one count of sexual intercourse with an animal.

The charges were filed before Magisterial District Judge George Thachik. No preliminary hearing date has been set, according to online court records.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/529344.html?nav=742

Sex and the Single Snail

Study shows benefits of sexual reproduction over asexual.

By Fariss Samarrai
28 January 2010

Why have sex?

That is one of the big questions in evolutionary biology.

Sexual reproduction is a high-energy endeavor, requiring, often, the quest for a mate, the actual act of sex, and the carrying of offspring (almost always by the females).

Why not reproduce asexually? Many organisms do, though most of them are single-celled bacteria and other simple life forms. Still, some multicellular organisms also reproduce asexually, including many plants, insects, some reptiles, various mollusks and a few fishes.

This highly efficient mode of reproduction is a low-energy endeavor, requiring no search for a mate, no sexual act, and sometimes, no carrying of offspring. It also allows rapid and abundant proliferation, since all members of that population are female and able to produce offspring.

So, yes, why have sex?

The prevailing theory is that sexual reproduction, which requires two genders, allows genetic intermingling that overall is very good for both the individuals and the species as a whole.

Asexual reproduction, on the other hand, is largely static, where each offspring is genetically identical to every other. This allows for the ongoing accumulation and replication of harmful mutations and little room for adaptation to rapidly changing environments, such as the introduction or quick proliferation of a pathogen. This could, in the long run, lead to extinction of the species.

A new study, by researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa, published currently in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, provides additional credence to this understanding.

“We demonstrated that sexual reproduction allows organisms to clean deleterious mutations from their genome,” said U.Va. biology professor Doug Taylor, who co-authored the study. “Asexual reproduction does indeed allow for the accumulation of deleterious mutations.”

Taylor and his colleagues at Iowa sequenced the entire mitochondrial DNA of multiple sexual and asexual lineages of a species of snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, which has sexual and asexual individuals living side-by-side in lakes in New Zealand.

They found that the sexually reproducing variety accumulates harmful mutations in DNA at about half the rate of the asexual lineage. This does not mean that mutations occur at a slower rate, but that, when mutations do occur, they are cleaned from the genome twice as fast in the sexual lineage.

“Asexual lineages suffer from the fact that they can’t clean the mutations from the genome—that’s the theory,” Taylor said. “And we found that, indeed, the sexual lineages are able to purge the genome of their deleterious mutations much more effectively than the asexual lineages.”

Taylor said the finding might be a profound demonstration, at the genetic level, for why sexual reproduction exists in the first place.

Taylor and his colleagues looked for mutations in the snails’ mitochondrial genome, in part because the mitochondrial genome is small and evolves rapidly in most animals. However, the mitochondrial genome is also where many mutations are known to affect the overall health of the full organism.

Underlying genetic disorders in the mitochondria are believed to cause many diseases affecting organisms, such as—in humans—Parkinson’s disease, premature aging, optic neuropathies and muscular degenerative disorders.

http://news.clas.virginia.edu/x16422.xml
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)

Boy accused of sexually abusing family cat

By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter
Mon. Jan 18 - 4:39 PM

A Dartmouth teenager was arrested on the weekend for allegedly trying to have sex with the family cat.

The 16-year-old boy appeared in Halifax youth court today on charges of bestiality, causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal, breaching an undertaking and two counts of breaching a youth sentence.

Crown attorney Gary Holt told Judge Pam Williams he was opposed to the boy's release.

The boy will remain in custody at the Nova Scotia Youth Facility in Waterville until Feb. 18, when he returns to court for a bail hearing.

The teenager's identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

His mother reported him to the authorities Saturday morning after she discovered evidence that the cat had been sexually abused.

The cat was examined at the Metro Animal Emergency Clinic in Dartmouth's Burnside Park.

“It's a serious offence,” Mr. Holt said of the allegation of bestiality. “It's one that we don't see very often ... in any court.”

Mr. Holt said this is the first bestiality case he's dealt with in 29 years as a prosecutor.

The boy has been charged with sex offences before.

He was sentenced in December to six months of deferred custody and supervision in the community for sexual assault.

He's also scheduled to go to trial May 3 on 10 charges, including single counts of sexual assault and committing an indecent act.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9014864.html
(Submitted by Joe McNally)

Researchers create first transgenic prairie voles

December 1, 2009

Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have successfully generated the first transgenic prairie voles, an important step toward unlocking the genetic secrets of pair bonding. The future application of this technology will enable scientists to perform a host of genetic manipulations that will help identify the brain mechanisms of social bonding and other complex social behaviors. This advancement may also have important implications for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders associated with impairments in social behavior. The study is available in the December issue of Biology of Reproduction.

Lead researcher Zoe Donaldson, PhD, and her colleagues adapted transgenic technology to the prairie vole, a naturally occurring monogamous rodent that is being used to discover the brain mechanisms underlying monogamous pair bonds.

"Domesticated lab rats and mice dominate biomedical research, but wild rodent species with more complex social behaviors are better suited for investigating the biology of the social brain. Until now, genetic engineering among rodents has been limited to lab mice and rats," says Donaldson.

Single-cell prairie vole embryos were injected with a lentivirus containing a gene found in glowing jellyfish. The gene encodes a green fluorescent protein, which glows under the appropriate conditions. The prairie vole that developed from this embryo expressed the green fluorescent protein throughout its body, and the foreign gene was passed on to the offspring for multiple generations.

Larry Young, PhD, a Yerkes-based senior investigator on the study and an expert in social behavior, will next use this technology to determine whether monogamy and its associated social behaviors can be affected by manipulating a single gene. Researchers are also investigating ways to refine this technology in order to alter gene expression in certain brain regions as well as at certain developmental milestones.

Source: Emory University (news : web)

http://www.physorg.com/news178895408.html

Scent signals stop incest in lemurs

2 December 2009

Chemical identifiers secreted from the genital glands of lemurs, allow them to avoid incest and also to engage in nepotism. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology have identified the smells used by both male and female ring-tailed lemurs to advertize their family ties.

Christine Drea from Duke University, North Carolina, USA, worked with Marylène Boulet and Marie Charpentier from the same university to study the primate's scent secretions. She said, "We sampled 17 sexually mature females throughout the year, during the extended nonbreeding season and the relatively limited breeding season, and compared this information with data on 19 males that was taken from a previous study. By integrating genetic and biochemical data, we provide the first molecular evidence that the scent secretions expressed by the genital glands of male and female lemurs contain markers of relatedness within and between the sexes."

The scents released during the competitive breeding season were more similar between relatives than nonrelatives, leading the researchers to speculate that these markers encode information that is particularly relevant to avoid inbreeding with unfamiliar kin. The weaker signals of genetic relatedness existing throughout the year might also be useful in facilitating nepotism between family members. According to Drea, "Consistent with the scent secretions of other mammals, the genital secretions of lemurs are extremely complex and encode multiple messages. It will be interesting to find out what other messages are being transmitted by this fascinating form of communication."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/bc-sss120109.php

Why do animals, especially males, have so many different colors?

RIGHT: A male Hetaerina occisa damselfly with red spots at the base and tip of its wings.

October 31, 2009
By Stuart Wolpert

(PhysOrg.com) -- In new research, UCLA scientists claim that "secondary sexual traits" like coloring may let animals know which species to avoid fighting.

Why do so many animal species — including fish, birds and insects — display such rich diversity in coloration and other traits? In new research, Gregory Grether, UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Christopher Anderson, who recently earned his doctorate in Grether's laboratory, offer an answer.

At least since Charles Darwin, biologists have noticed that species differ in "secondary sexual traits," such as bright coloring or elaborate horns, Grether said. Darwin attributed this diversity to sexual selection, meaning the traits increased an animal's ability to attract mates.

But Grether and Anderson, writing in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, emphasize another evolutionary factor.

"The cost of attacking the wrong type of male and of being attacked by the wrong type of male favors the rich diversity of coloration and of birdsong and chemical cues, such as odors, to identify rivals," Grether said.

Grether and Anderson studied several species of the Hetaerina damselfly (closely related to dragonflies) and found that differences in coloration served to help damselflies distinguish males of their own species, who are rivals, from those of other species, who are not.

"We found that male Hetaerina damselflies use species differences in wing coloration to distinguish between intruders of their own species and intruders of other damselfly species, but only at sites where the two species naturally occur together," he said. "This provides one of the clearest demonstrations yet of an evolutionary process that is probably very prevalent in nature but which has largely been overlooked. We tested for shifts in what animals recognize as competitors."

Nobel Prize-winning Austrian ethologist and zoologist Konrad Lorenz suggested in 1962 that the spectacularly diverse coloration of coral reef fish was likely due to selection against fighting with the wrong species.

"Just as there could be selection against mating with the wrong species, there can also be selection against fighting with the wrong species," Grether said. "Lorenz said there was no advantage to coral reef fish attacking species that are close in proximity but are not competitors. The idea never really reached the level of attention in evolutionary biology that it deserved."

Lorenz's idea may not accurately explain the color diversity of coral reef fish, Grether said, but it may explain the diversity of coloration of other animal groups.

"When species are found in the same location, they do a better job of telling apart males of their own species from males of the other species than they do in places where they do not occur together," Grether said.

At sites where only one damselfly species occurs naturally, the researchers tested their theory by using members of that species whose wings had been artificially colored to resemble males of another damselfly species.

"We can test their responses at both kinds of sites, and we found they show greater discrimination between males of their own species and of other species at places where they actually have to contend with the other species than at places where they don't. They differentiate based on color," Grether said. "That this ability has evolved as a result of selection against fighting with other species is suggested quite strongly by the fact that in places where the other species do not occur, they do not make that distinction.

"If there is no reason for two species to interact aggressively with each other — as Lorenz argued with coral reef fish — then you would expect evolution to favor the ability for them to tell the difference by, for example, an exaggeration in the initial difference in color between them," Grether said. "Differences in color might enable females to more readily tell their own males apart from males of other species. Selection against interspecies aggression could favor the evolution of increased differences between species in color."

Some damselflies species also differ more in coloration where they occur together than where they occur alone, but "this finding can be explained either by selection against mating with the wrong species or selection against fighting with the wrong species," Grether said.

In future research, Grether hopes to learn what proportion of species can tell the difference between members of their own species and members of other species and whether they respond more strongly to their own species in a competitive context. Interspecies aggression and the evolutionary effect it has are understudied scientific questions, Grether said.

In addition to studying several species of damselflies in Mexico and Texas, Grether and Anderson collaborated with modeler Kenichi Okamoto to construct a mathematical model of what happens when species with similar secondary sexual traits come into contact. The model, published in the November 2009 issue of the journal Biological Reviews, predicts rapid evolutionary shifts in secondary sexual traits and also in what the animals recognize as competitors.

"My reading of the evidence," Grether said, "is that these evolutionary processes are important."

http://www.physorg.com/news176195425.html

Chinese Fruit Bats Demonstrate Unusual Sexual Behavior Never Before Seen in Adult Animals

RIGHT: Greater short-nosed fruit bat feeding on kapok, photo: Wikipedia.

by Matthew McDermott,
New York, NY on 10.28.09
Science & Technology (science)

New research published in the online journal PLoS ONE demonstrates for the first time that a non-human adult animal species regularly engages in oral sex behavior. While the behavior has been seen in juvenile animals before, this is the first time it has been observed in adult animals. Warning: While the following information is scientifically accurate, some of the descriptions are slightly graphic.

Prepare to enter the fascinating world of fruit bat fellatio. Though it has been observed previously in bonobos (both heterosexually and homosexually), this behavior generally has been confined to juvenile animals, the authors of the new study note.

Activity May Increase Copulation Time

The field research, which was conducted in Guangzhou City, China, reveals that in the case of the greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) female species-on-male species oral sex now has been documented as a regular occurrence. Scientists observed that in instances where oral sex was performed, copulation time increased.

Benefits of Longer Copulation

As to why this behavior occurs, the paper's authors propose several adaptive hypotheses that merit further study:

1. The activity may increase lubrication and thus prolong copulation, in turn assisting transport the transport of sperm or stimulating secretions in the female bat's pituitary gland, thereby increasing the likelihood of fertilization.



2. Prolonged copulation may be a form of "mate-guarding" -- that is, claiming a single a partner and protecting that partner against sexual activity with other bats.



3. The activity may help prevent sexually transmitted diseases, as saliva has "a protective repertoire that goes beyond antibacterial activity to include antifungal, antichlamydial, and antiviral properties as well," according to the report.



4. The activity may "facilitate the detection and identification of MHC-dependent chemical cues associated with mate choice," say the scientists.

Read the whole paper: Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time (Warning: Contains some graphic descriptions.)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/chinese-fruit-bats-engage-in-unusual-sexual-behavior.php

(Submitted by Joe McNally)

Russian tourists try to break Florida law having sex with porcupine

18.05.2009
Source: Pravda.Ru

Two Russian tourists paid a very high price for breaking the American law which bans sex with porcupines.

Staying in Florida on vacation, two Russians from Saint Petersburg decided to check whether they are able to circumvent such an unusual law or not.

Consequences appeared to be very sad. The poor fellows had to take needles from their genitals and treat inflammation for several months.

Having arrived in the USA, the Russians were given the book about the craziest American laws. For example, in Colombia sex - other than in a missionary position - is forbidden; in Kentucky it is forbidden to bring a lion to a movie theater; in Florida it is strictly forbidden to have sex with porcupines!

As it is known, forbidden fruit is always sweet, especially for Russians.

Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center made the following diagnosis: 'needles of a porcupine in genitals'.

At first 32-year-old Anton and 30-year-old Eugenie had a good laugh at the senseless law written by local authorities. And then, after helping themselves with whisky, they decided to break this funny law.

“We came here to the USA to have fun!” said Anton and the two friends started their searches for the so called American "hedgehog". It took them less than an hour to find the animal.

With victorious shouts the drunken friends dropped their pants and started making unambiguous movements with their hips. Having sobered up the following morning the friends realized that they need medical help. So the animal-lovers had to go from the airport straight to hospital, Life.Ru reports.

Doctors of well-known medical center Cedars-Sinai diagnosed the case as ‘needles of a porcupine in genitals’.

“The most positive thing about the situation is that the Russian tourists did not have to stand trial in Florida. They left the state just in time,” said the doctors at the medical center.

Now American laws do not seem so funny to Anton and Eugenie. After returning to Moscow they had to get acquainted with Russian urologists: porcupine needles caused very strong inflammation.

Pravda.ru forum. The place where truth hurts

http://newsfromrussia.com/society/stories/18-05-2009/107573-porcupine_sex-0