Prostitution in Animals

When, most of us think of animals we think of various species which might be

similar to us or completely different than us. Many of you probably thinking about
that cute little puppy you have. But very few think about the social complexities in
the animal world. After all Humans evolved from the animals itself and we humans
are very social. So animals must possess these social traits.

Humans have learned many things throughout the evolution and one of the thing
we learned is trading, but when the trading for sex is done, it is usually referred to
as prostitution which is also known as one of the oldest profession in the history of
mankind.
Actually that's the exact definition of prostitution, engaging in sexual activity in
exchange for payment of money, goods, and services. Humans engage in such kind
of behavior.
But what about animals? Do animals also have similar behavior?

Many animal scientists studying these animals have found similar traits.
Such as in penguins, specially Adlie penguins.
These penguins live in Antartica. Every year around the end of October, millions of
these birds, which spend most of their lives in the ocean move to the rocky soil
area for breeding.
These Penguins build nest from stones and pebbles, their nest is higher than the
surrounding which protects their chick from hypothermia through meltwater and
rain. For building the nest they collect stones which is quite rare in the area they
live, plus they live in millions. They often face the scarcity of stones. When this
problem arrives some penguins found stealing stones from other penguins and in
some cases it was found that the female Penguins pretending to be single and
having sex with other single male penguins for exchange of stones. In few cases
some female penguins were found just flirting with single penguin to get stones. In
one case the female penguin collected 62 stones from a single male.

These penguins were not only found prostituting themselves but in many instances
they also found male penguins engaging in rape, gang rape, sexual and physical
abuse of younger penguins and also in necrophilia with penguins some of which
had died the previous year. Not all penguins engage in this kind behavior but very
few of them actually do this. This was first discovered by Dr. George Murray
Levick in his studies during 1910-1913. He never published his observations, it felt
inappropriate to him to publish this shocking behavior of penguins. The British
scientist wrote his observations only in Greek so that only educated person can
understand. Later when fellow scientists found out about his work and then it was
published in 2012.

Similar behavior was found in insects like the Beetles.

These insects engage in a polyandrous sexual strategy, which means that one
female mates with several different males. Usually the female can get all the sperm
from one male what she require for breeding but they still engage in multiple
copulation because the male provides goods such as food or water to female. When
the resources are scarce they engage in more sexual act with more males. These
insect live in very arid environment so they often face dehydration and during the
time of extreme condition or draught and female seed beetle were found engaging
in more sexual acts to get hydration benefits from male ejaculation. On the other
hand male life span observed to be decreasing because of constant mating in
benign environment.

But these are all the animals which are completely different than us humans.
What about animals which are somewhat similar to us? Such as Monkeys
When scientists were teaching the concept of money to monkeys to examine their
economic strategies, the monkeys started showing the rational economic behavior
like humans do.

They first taught monkeys that they could exchange small metal tokens for piece of
food. When monkeys understood this concept. Scientist decided to put them in a
market like situation where they had a choice to buy food from different traders for
the money they have been given.

When both the trader had the food which monkeys liked equally such as trader1
had apple and trader 2 had grapes. Because both were their favorite food, the
monkeys spent their money equally on both items. But when the price of the apple
was reduced and was given 2 apple for the price before the monkeys always
bought apples. These monkeys showed some rational human behavior of buying
from one who provided most of the food.
Adding more twist to the situation when trader 1 offered 1 piece of apple and
trader 2 offered 2 pieces of apples. Even though trader 2 offered 2 pieces but many
times he actually gave only 1 piece instead of 2. The monkey always chose to buy
from trader 2 making the better deal from the choices they had.

After completely understanding the concept of money. In one case it was found
that the male monkeys started paying money to female monkeys to have sex with
them and the female monkeys were observed buying food with that money. That
was first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. This
just confirmed scientists that the monkeys completely understood the concept of
money.

The monkeys not only stopped with this they also learned Gambling, stealing,
unnecessary spending because they never observed saving anything.

This behavior of animals may not be termed as prostitution in animal world, may
be from humans perspective it is prostitution but its the nature made these
animals behave this way. Such as in beetle the only goal of the male is to fertilize
as many eggs as possible, probably in case of penguin too.
In case of monkeys it is known as basic Behavioral bias. But just the mere
introduction of concept of money to these monkeys can invoke many things. Looks
like humans as well as some animals are not immune to the effects of money.

For example.
When monkey was given a choice of buying banana, jello, and cheese, for the
same price, they actually bought one their most favorite item all the time. But
when the rate of their favorite thing was doubled they started buying the thing
which was less expensive. The monkeys did show some rational economic
behavior there.
After completely understanding the concept of money. In one case it was found
that the male monkeys started paying money to female monkeys to have sex with
them and the female monkey would go buy food with that money.

The monkeys not only stopped with this they also learned Gambling, stealing,
unnecessary spending because they never observed saving anything.

This behavior of animals cannot be termed as prostitution, may be from humans

perspective it is prostitution but the its the nature made these animals behave this
way. Such as in beetle the only goal of the male is to fertilize as many eggs as
possible, probably in case of penguin too.
But in case of monkeys not sure. But you think about it the introduction of only
mere concept of money to these monkeys can invoke many things. Looks like
humans and some animals are not immune to the effect of money.
But during the mating period these penguin creates a nest of stones these stones are
also known as pebbles. To collect these pebbles the female penguins would go to
single male penguins and have sex with them and then take the stone. Not all the
penguins observed were doing this but around 5% of the female population of
penguins do this.
In many cases it was found that the female penguin would just flirt with male
penguin and take the stone.

Then there are these chip monkeys when these monkeys were taught the concept of
money for the first time. The monkeys started behaving like we do. For example.
When monkey was given a choice of buying banana, jello, and cheese, for the
same price they actually bought one their most favorite item all the time. But when
the rate of their favorite thing was doubled they started buying the thing which was
less expensive. The monkeys did show some rational economic behavior there.
But the effect of all this experiment was that the monkeys learned the concept of
money but also learned Gambling, stealing, unnecessary spending.
In one case the monkeys started paying the female monkeys money to have sex
with them and the female monkey would go buy food with that money.

After all monkeys are also not immune to the side effects of money.
But is this profession is only limited to humans? Or does it goes way beyond
human evolution?

Prostitution is always known as one of the oldest profession in history of mankind.

There are various definitive proofs for that and if you do a little research you'll find
countless numbers of example of how this profession is ran throughout the history.
But is this is only limited to us humans or does it go beyond humanity. But before
we get into this let's see the definition of the word. Prostitution- "it is a act of
copulation for some material gains or transactional sex"
Now let's go through the human evolution. We humans, homo sapiens are evolved
from apes. The closest we can go next to humans is gorilla or monkeys. Does this
exist in monkeys too? In 2010 there was an experiment done in max plank institute
on monkeys.
The monkeys were taught the concept of money. In the experiment the monkey
was given 10 coins and each coin they gave back they were given a banana in
exchange of it. See the trading has done by exchanging the goods. After dealing
with the enough banana aka after the basic need of male monkey was fulfilled.
Then male monkeys started offering money to female monkeys to have sex with
them. But you might monkeys are very closest to humans so this behavior of
monkeys is acceptable.
But in 1998 animal scientists has observed penguins for about a period of 5 years.
Now before I tell this let me tell u how penguin lives. Penguins usually live like a
family.