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When animal sexual behaviour is reproductively motivated, it is often termed mating or copulation; for most non-human mammals, mating and copulation occur at oestrus (the most fertile period in the mammalian female's reproductive cycle), which increases the chances of successful impregnation.
In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. Fertilization is the fusion of two gametes. [1] Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. [2]
A mating system is a way in which a group is structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The precise meaning depends upon the context. With respect to animals, the term describes which males and females mate under which circumstances.
The mammalian male reproductive system contains two main divisions, the penis and the testicles, the latter of which are where sperm are produced and usually held in a scrotum. [5] In humans, both of these organs are outside the abdominal cavity , but they can be primarily housed within the abdomen in other animals.
Sexual mimicry is employed differently across species and it is part of their strategy for survival and reproduction. Examples of intraspecific sexual mimicry in animals include the spotted hyena, certain types of fish, passerine birds and some species of insect. Interspecific sexual mimicry can also occur in some plant species, especially orchids.
A common example of polyandrous mating can be found in the field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) of the invertebrate order Orthoptera (containing crickets, grasshoppers, and groundhoppers). Polyandrous behavior is also prominent in many other insect species, including the red flour beetle , the adzuki bean weevil , and the species of spider ...
The reproductive success of the male is thus determined by his success during each year's non-breeding season, causing reproductive success to vary with each year's environmental conditions. The eclectus parrot is an example of a bird where the female (right) is more colorful than the male (left).
Display behaviour is a set of ritualized behaviours that enable an animal to communicate to other animals (typically of the same species) about specific stimuli. [1] Such ritualized behaviours can be visual, but many animals depend on a mixture of visual, audio, tactical and chemical signals. [ 1 ]