It makes sense, right? We’re a part of the animal kingdom; of course they masturbate then, too.
Discover Magazine dives into the fascinating case studies of auto-eroticism amongst animals.
“Many creatures across the animal kingdom don’t even have hands and digits to masturbate with, but it hasn’t stopped them from becoming enterprising and resourceful onanists with a paw, a foot, a flipper, a tail, or a mouth. There are examples of animals masturbating before sex, after sex, and sometimes even instead of sex.“
Smart!
“What Animals Masturbate?
Masturbation behavior is observed in a variety of animal species. Some of the animals known to engage in masturbation include:
Birds
Birds don’t even have genitals, they have a cloaca — which is a single hole that birds use to urinate, defecate, give sperm, take sperm, and lay eggs — and it doesn’t have many nerve endings. Yet they’re known for humping branches, leaves, mounds of dirt, and rocks. In a 2008 study, one Dovekie bird was observed “mounting a clump of moss in the prelaying period” 10 times one year, and three times the following year.”
Wow! If you didn’t have an appreciation for birds before, we bet you do now.
For the full list of animals and how they engage in masturbation, check out the full article here.
Did you know this about animals before stumbling upon this article?
Actually while never studying the subject I have read in different articles, I don’t remember which ones, that some animals like monkeys and some larger animals do have ways of pleasuring themselves. So to answer your question, yes I kind of knew about it. But this article enlightened me to birds which I would have never guessed.