What is the role of pleasure in successful reproduction?

Evolution says it's mightily important: every female vertebrate has a clitoris.

Snakes have two!

Female pleasure has been selected for.

Making sex fun and pleasurable is a biologically sensible thing to do, more sex means more potential babies.

Some studies of pigs and dairy cows have found an increase of up to 6% in successful conception when the females are stimulated during artificial insemination.

Sex is Weird is a series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following the sexual evolution of the animal kingdom.

Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended.

Featuring:

• Dr Bruno Buzatto, Flinders University, South Australia
• Lynette Greenwood, Dairy farmer, Victoria
• Associate Professor Andrew Durso, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida
• Lucy Cooke, Author and Film maker
• Associate Professor Patty Brennan, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, US
• Emeritus Professor Susan Suarez, Cornell University, New York

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Petria Ladgrove, Producer
• Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano

This episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in 2024 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and the Kaurna people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.