Science This article is more than 19 years oldPenis size does matter in Arctic
This article is more than 19 years oldA study of animals has confirmed what many men have long suspected - a large penis can be a recipe for success in the mating game. But there is a catch: the value of a big organ depends on where you live.
Animals at high latitudes tend to benefit more from being better endowed than species in more hospitable climes, say Steven Ferguson, of the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, Canada, and Serge Larivière, of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation in Portage La Prairie, Canada.
They measured the penis bone, or baculum, in 122 carnivorous mammal species from around the world. They then looked at whether the bone's size correlated with factors such as the temperature the animal lives at, or the latitude of its home.
Those at polar latitudes have a longer baculum relative to their body size than their tropical counterparts, the scientists report in the ecology journal Oikos. This is probably down to the differing mating strategies that come into play in different climates. Animals such as elephant seals in lower latitudes tend to live in large colonies and males fight against each other for access to females, with the winners collecting a harem. This kind of mating behaviour can cause selection for such things as large body size, which helps the males to win physical fights. These seals can weigh up to 2,300kg, but have relatively small baculums.
Walruses in the Arctic weigh less but have a baculum that can reach up to 60cm - one of the longest of any mammal. Why? The hostile Arctic landscape supports few individuals, so walruses tend not to bump into each other very often, making fights between males rarer. Under these circumstances males with a greater chance of inseminating their sexual partners during a rare encounter might win the evolutionary race, says Ferguson. And a larger sexual organ can place sperm closer to the egg.
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