Whale Orgy, Literally!

Together the balls weigh a TON. A literal TON. We’re not even going to do the human comparison because it will just make every male feel inadequate.

Let's talk about the Right Whale. Right whales are baleen whales which feed by filtering plankton out of the water. And I'm talking about North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis). We all know that we’re supposed to save the whales, but the right whale is of particular interest, as it was hunted a LOT until the world finally banned it in 1937.

Image: nopas.wordpress.com

By the way a research was carried out by Mate et al,“Observations of a Female North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) in Simultaneous Copulation with Two Males: Supporting Evidence for Sperm Competition” Aquatic Mammals, 2005.
(You know there are times when things just bump into one another and this is one of those exceptionally appropriate combination).

Image: sonicyouth.com

The thing is, the male right whale is....pretty blessed. Alright, it REALLY is blessed, for it has a genital 15% of the male's total length. Doesn't sound much, but when I put it into perspective on an adult man (1.75m tall), the man would certainly have his confidence boosted for possessing a 26cm long penis. Male right whales have, on average, penis around 2-2.5m long. Their genital beat ours by... the slightest amount.

Image: discover-whales.com

Not only that, whale penises are FLEXIBLE. This isn't surprising really, due to the potential mechanics of whale mating. During whale mating, you’ll get a whole group of males crowding and shoving around a female, waiting for an in. In many documented cases, the female will roll on her back, while the male is nearby on his side. He then snakes his penis up and around to get to the female’s vagina. Obviously it’s good to be both long and bendy.

Image: democraticunderground.com

Then I should also mention about the BALLS(of should I not?). They have the biggest testicles of any mammal on the planet. Together the balls weigh a TON. A literal TON. We’re not even going to do the human comparison because it will just make every male feel inadequate.

Right Whale society is a pretty messy one. The more mates a female has, the more competition for a given male to become the lucky one. This results in males producing higher volumes of sperm and penetrate deeper in order to try and overwhelm with numbers. And for more sperm, you'd need some huge balls. Not to mention a longer penis.

Image: funnyjunk.com

A good example of this is the rat, which has balls so big they drag the floor in some strains. This is also why HUMANS have relatively small testicles compared to their body mass. Human females don’t tend toward having a lot of mates at the same time, and so a guy doesn’t have to produce large amounts of sperm to ensure he’s the one.

So some scientists have hypothesized that, because the male right whale also has huge balls, it might also have a lot of competition for the ladies during mating season, and that this leads to large balls and large amounts of sperm.

Image: myspace.com

Right whales do group up to get near a female at the surface (called a Surface Active Group). But unlike humpback whales, who will fight aggressively to get the girl, right whales are...a little more cooperative, and let their sperm do the fighting.

What I mean here is, unlike other mammals(apart from humans perhaps), Right Whales sometimes practise what we scientifically call “simultaneous intromission”. Two whale penises. One whale vagina. A layman would prefer to call it an orgy/threesome/gangbang.

Image: http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/files/2011/01/whale-threesome.png

The researchers were watching the whales when they noticed a Surface Active Group of two males and a female, rolling around and jostling at the surface. The female rolls over, presents her underside above the waves, and two long object went into her cleavage.
The authors point out that this provides a good bit of support for the hypothesis as to why male right whales have big testicles. The whales may not be fighting, but when they’ve got competition THIS intense, some bigger balls are most definitely in order.



Malcolm

info: http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/01/21/friday-weird-science-the-magnificent-mammal-menage-a-trois/