Pelé Marie, Bonnefoy Alexandre, Shimada Masaki, Sueur Cédric
Ethobiosciences, Research and Consultancy Agency in Animal Wellbeing and Behaviour, Strasbourg, France.
Issekinicho Editions, Strasbourg, France.
Primates. 2017 Apr;58(2):1-4. doi: 10.1007/s10329-016-0593-4. Epub 2017 Jan 10.
Interspecies sexual behaviour or 'reproductive interference' has been reported across a wide range of animal taxa. However, most of these occurrences were observed in phylogenetically close species and were mainly discussed in terms of their effect on fitness, hybridization and species survival. The few cases of heterospecific mating in distant species occurred between animals that were bred and maintained in captivity. Only one scientific study has reported this phenomenon, describing sexual harassment of king penguins by an Antarctic fur seal. This is the first article to report mating behaviour between a male Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata yakui) and female sika deer (Cervus nippon yakushimae) on Yakushima Island, Japan. Although Japanese macaques are known to ride deer, this individual showed clearly sexual behaviour towards several female deer, some of which tried to escape whilst others accepted the mount. This male seems to belong to a group of peripheral males. Although this phenomenon may be explained as copulation learning, this is highly unlikely. The most realistic hypothesis would be that of mate deprivation, which states that males with limited access to females are more likely to display this behaviour. Whatever the cause for this event may be, the observation of highly unusual animal behaviour may be a key to understanding the evolution of heterospecific mating behaviour in the animal kingdom.
跨物种性行为或“生殖干扰”在广泛的动物分类群中都有报道。然而，这些事件大多发生在系统发育关系较近的物种之间，并且主要是从它们对适应性、杂交和物种生存的影响方面进行讨论的。少数远缘物种间异种交配的案例发生在圈养繁殖和饲养的动物之间。仅有一项科学研究报道过这一现象，描述了南极毛皮海狮对帝企鹅的性骚扰。本文首次报道了在日本屋久岛上一只雄性日本猕猴（屋久猕猴）与雌性梅花鹿（屋久岛梅花鹿）之间的交配行为。虽然已知日本猕猴会骑在鹿身上，但这只猕猴对几只雌鹿表现出了明显的性行为，其中一些雌鹿试图逃脱，而另一些则接受了骑跨。这只雄性猕猴似乎属于一群边缘雄性个体。虽然这种现象可以解释为交配学习，但这种可能性极小。最现实的假设是配偶剥夺，即与雌性交配机会有限的雄性更有可能表现出这种行为。无论这一事件的原因是什么，对这种极不寻常的动物行为的观察可能是理解动物王国中异种交配行为进化的关键。
