What do mallards, Canada geese and lizards and Iguanas and Humans have in common?
22 April 2009
We have observed Mallard ducks frequently in courtship and copulation at Okanagan Lake waterfront, both during the breeding season and outside the breeding season. Typically, it starts with the male and female bobbing their heads at each other and this picks up in crescendo and they near each other and then he jumps on top, copulates and gets off and does a counterclockwise loop around the female while she bathes and preens.
Then one day we had the good fortune to observe these head bobbing prior to copulation in Canada geese in 2009 and I immediately knew that this was ancient and conservative behavior regarding preparation for mating. I recalled seeing it in lizards and read more about this.
Head bobbing is found in lizards and Iguana's as well and is present in both sexes at least in the Garden lizard, Calotes versicolor (B. N. Pandav et al. 2007).
It is a behavioral component used to indicate a desire to mate and by being present in both sexes, is evidence of consensual mating behavior in reptiles and birds and if you think for a moment, humans ergo Mammals.
Consensual sex where approval is requested by overt behaviours is therefore very primitive having appeared in Reptilia for sure and possibly earlier in Amphibia or even fish though I haven't enough experience with these last two groups to be able to say definitively that this is the case. Perhaps more interesting is its demonstration that genes for critical behaviours are extremely conservative despite millions of years and evolutionary radiation.
The body language word meaning yes, that is head bobbing, goes back a long way, and also suggests that manners pertaining to sex are very ancient.
Copyright 2009 Jorma Jyrkkanen. All rights reserved.
Tags: ethology, mating behaviour, conservative genes, reptiles, birds, mammals, head bobbing, Jorma Jyrkkanen
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