Tens of thousands of museum visitors have attended the Sexual Nature exhibition over the last four months and had a chance to vote on three big questions.
At this halfway point through the exhibition’s run, we wanted to share the results of this survey with you.
After considering the bizarre, bold and often thought-provoking sexual practices of the animal world in the exhibition, these results are intended to reveal a little of our own social, biological and emotional perceptions towards sex.
Should Humans be Monogamous?
Just under half (46%) of voters believe that humans should be monogamous as a species. In the world of super-injunctions and soaring divorce rates this may not be a surprise. We are unusual in the animal kingdom in attempting to mate for life. Some, such as blackbirds, manage it but most animals regularly change partners. A good indicator of just how promiscuous the females of the species are is the size of the males’ testes. The bigger they are, the more sperm they’re producing to out-do the competition.
Do you Believe in True Love?
68% of voters believe in the idea of true love, which is very fitting in the year when 3 billion people around the world watched the wedding of Wills and Kate. Animals enjoy their fair share of romance too, notably seahorses who enjoy a lengthy courtship that involves a ritual of colour changing, swimming and holding tails, and general twirling.
What is Sex for?
Only 14% of voters believe that sex is for procreation, with the vast majority of contributors revealing they believe sex is more to do with intimacy and recreation than simple reproduction. Some animals would agree - bonobo apes are at it all the time, even using sex as a greeting. They have little discrimination for age, gender, or even whether they’re in the middle of a meal.
Other weird and wonderful animal sex facts:
• Gibbons traditionally mate for life. This is because female gibbons are usually solitary and dispersed over a wide area, which gives males only one option, to monopolise a single female’s home range and be her faithful husband.
• Roman snails shoot each other with love darts in surprising S&M foreplay.
• The male praying mantis may make the ultimate sacrifice when his mate begins to devour him head-first during sex, but thankfully successful fertilisation can still take place when he is headless.
Sexual Nature takes a provocative look at the birds and the bees to examine the science behind sex. It offers a fresh and bold perspective on sex in the natural world, and visitors are asked to leave their preconceptions to one side: the sex life of nature cannot be judged by our moral codes.
Tickets are available at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/sexualnature Sexual Nature contains frank information and imagery about sex.