You've undoubtedly seen footage of large land mammals competing for mates: bighorn sheep smashing their heads together, elk locking horns, or elephants trumpeting and charging at one another. But when a female humpback whale goes into heat, males chase her in a race that soon escalates into an all-out brawl. And the BBC has captured it on film for all to see. Check it out.
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October 26, 2009
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- Diane A. Kelly
Diane Kelly is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she studies the neural wiring and mechanical engineering of reproductive systems. - James L. Cambias
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WAY cool! I'm a little hesitant about the evolutionary just-so story at the end of the video, though. I mean, the winning male might father the strongest offspring, but we don't really know that, do we?
Posted by: Danna Staaf | October 28, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Its true. We dont really know what their babies will be like, even though its clear she thinks his success is sexy.
Posted by: DianeAKelly | October 29, 2009 at 09:38 PM