WIKIMEDIA, THE CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY, VOLUME X—MAMMALIA
The Hottentot golden mole woos females based on the size of its penis—and females prefer a male with a long reproductive organ, according to a study published last month (January 26) in the journal Mammalian Biology.
Philip Bateman, a biologist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and one of the study’s authors, speculated that the blind, subterranean creatures use penis size to take the measure of a potential mate because they can’t see use more showy forms of sexual selection, which require visual displays. “Judging penis size when mating may be one of the only criteria they have available to them,” Bateman told BBC Nature. The creatures might be able to feel the penis in the dark and reject complete mating attempts if ...
