Alonzo
02-03-2007, 11:56 PM
OK, so there you are, side by side. The build-up’s been great and, suddenly, her movements become more urgent and she starts to move her body rhythmically against your own. You feel yourself quicken and steal a glance. Her mouth’s wide open and her eyes are rolling. She begins to shudder. Yes. Now. Yes-yes-yes.
Or, quite possibly, no. At least, if you’re a trout.
Researchers have shown that in 59 per cent of spawnings, the female fakes her orgasm. Then, before you can say When Harry Met Sally, a film in which Meg Ryan hilariously faked it, too, she’s at it with someone else, in all probability bigger than you. It will all come as a surprise to trout anglers who, with their own tackle untouchable in the winter close-season, have been out on the river bank over the past few weeks, watching Mr and Mrs Salmo trutta making the most of theirs.
The spawning of trout in winter, like the hatching of the mayfly in spring, is one of the hidden dramas of the British countryside and few other than anglers and naturalists ever see it. Male and female fish congregate on the shallows. The hen fish digs a hole in the gravels and a male fish darts alongside her. When their flanks touch, it is as though an electric current runs through them. They become rigid, tremble violently, their jaws are wrenched wide and she sheds her eggs as he releases milt over them. In moments, it seems, a new generation of trout — and for anglers a future season’s trout fishing — is begun.
Alas, Erik Petersson and Tobjorn Jarvi, of Sweden’s National Board of Fisheries, discovered that all is not as it seems. In a scientific paper published in 2001 they reported that hen trout are, so to speak, cock-teasers in the most literal sense. In the 117 spawnings they observed, females faked orgasm 69 times. The hen fish adopted the jaws-wide, body-trembling posture on the stream bed, the cock fish gave up his milt but she held on to her eggs. Just when everything seemed to have gone swimmingly, the female would back away and start up with someone new.
One of the reasons the female cools off could be that — this may have a familiar ring to more than trout — the male fails to hit the right spot. “If she feels he is not in the right position, she just stops the process,” Petersson said. “But the male, he is so excited that he goes the whole way. He’s tricked.”
Other researchers suggest that the reason the female fakes orgasm is that the male is simply not the mate she wants. Then, they suggest, she goes through the motions to get it over quickly for him so that she can move on, looking for better genes elsewhere.
Some hen trout have been seen to fake it not just with one male but several, one after another. It is, observers say, as though all the time she is trying to find Mr Right, who tends — surprise, surprise — to be Mr Big: a cock fish with bigger fins, bigger jaws, presumably bigger everything, if you get the drift. Petersson reported that when the hen does find a partner that can make the gravels move for her, she goes all the way, leaving a string of spent suitors behind her, “looking confused”.
None of this will have been apparent to the casual observer in the past few weeks. Not one angler in 1,000 will have heard anything of it. But now it’s out in the open and the grapevine will be buzzing. Even so, surprise, not shock, will be the order of the day. In winter, anglers fiddle with their flies. In summer, they discuss the evening rise openly. It is not faint-hearts we are dealing with. A few faked orgasms are going to make no one blush.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28910-2582659,00.html
If there was one thing I would have guessed was non unique to humans (or at least humans, chimps, bonobo's etc.), this would have to be it.
Or, quite possibly, no. At least, if you’re a trout.
Researchers have shown that in 59 per cent of spawnings, the female fakes her orgasm. Then, before you can say When Harry Met Sally, a film in which Meg Ryan hilariously faked it, too, she’s at it with someone else, in all probability bigger than you. It will all come as a surprise to trout anglers who, with their own tackle untouchable in the winter close-season, have been out on the river bank over the past few weeks, watching Mr and Mrs Salmo trutta making the most of theirs.
The spawning of trout in winter, like the hatching of the mayfly in spring, is one of the hidden dramas of the British countryside and few other than anglers and naturalists ever see it. Male and female fish congregate on the shallows. The hen fish digs a hole in the gravels and a male fish darts alongside her. When their flanks touch, it is as though an electric current runs through them. They become rigid, tremble violently, their jaws are wrenched wide and she sheds her eggs as he releases milt over them. In moments, it seems, a new generation of trout — and for anglers a future season’s trout fishing — is begun.
Alas, Erik Petersson and Tobjorn Jarvi, of Sweden’s National Board of Fisheries, discovered that all is not as it seems. In a scientific paper published in 2001 they reported that hen trout are, so to speak, cock-teasers in the most literal sense. In the 117 spawnings they observed, females faked orgasm 69 times. The hen fish adopted the jaws-wide, body-trembling posture on the stream bed, the cock fish gave up his milt but she held on to her eggs. Just when everything seemed to have gone swimmingly, the female would back away and start up with someone new.
One of the reasons the female cools off could be that — this may have a familiar ring to more than trout — the male fails to hit the right spot. “If she feels he is not in the right position, she just stops the process,” Petersson said. “But the male, he is so excited that he goes the whole way. He’s tricked.”
Other researchers suggest that the reason the female fakes orgasm is that the male is simply not the mate she wants. Then, they suggest, she goes through the motions to get it over quickly for him so that she can move on, looking for better genes elsewhere.
Some hen trout have been seen to fake it not just with one male but several, one after another. It is, observers say, as though all the time she is trying to find Mr Right, who tends — surprise, surprise — to be Mr Big: a cock fish with bigger fins, bigger jaws, presumably bigger everything, if you get the drift. Petersson reported that when the hen does find a partner that can make the gravels move for her, she goes all the way, leaving a string of spent suitors behind her, “looking confused”.
None of this will have been apparent to the casual observer in the past few weeks. Not one angler in 1,000 will have heard anything of it. But now it’s out in the open and the grapevine will be buzzing. Even so, surprise, not shock, will be the order of the day. In winter, anglers fiddle with their flies. In summer, they discuss the evening rise openly. It is not faint-hearts we are dealing with. A few faked orgasms are going to make no one blush.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28910-2582659,00.html
If there was one thing I would have guessed was non unique to humans (or at least humans, chimps, bonobo's etc.), this would have to be it.