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NARRATOR: Mirror, mirror on the wall
who has the strangest personal life of all?
JANE: Bizarre, aberrant, ***, awkward,
totally unfeasible in some cases.
NARRATOR: What makes a penguin sell her body for stones?
OLIVIA: Females in many species are much more promiscuous
than anyone expected they would be.
NARRATOR: Which fairy-tale insect likes it rough?
MARLENE: It's not what you'd call a very calm or quiet affair
NARRATOR: The dark side of dolphin dating.
OLIVIA: Sex can be a dangerous game.
NARRATOR: Is cheating really that bad?
MARLENE: It's a very sensible thing to mate with
lots of different individuals.
NARRATOR: Suicide sex, are you serious?
JANE: Now that's a full service date.
I won't hurt you, just don't kill me.
NARRATOR: Meet the World's Weirdest Friends with Benefits.
Antarctica.
Remote.
Icy.
40 degrees below in winter.
Here, Adélie penguins have evolved
some exceptional tricks for survival.
Thick subcutaneous fat for insulation.
Clever blood circulation that stops ice
freezing their happy feet.
And modified feathers that overlap
keeping icy water away from their skin.
But it's their behavior
that's the real surprise.
Especially when it comes to sex.
MARLENE: Lots of animals that people think
of as being really sweet and innocent turn out to have
fairly Exotic sex lives.
JANE: Bizarre, aberrant, ***, awkward,
totally unfeasible in some cases.
NARRATOR: Early explorers deemed the Adélie's sex-life so wicked
they could barely record it for science.
GREG: On Scott's south polar expedition in the early 1900s
Their attitude was the *** behavior of Adélie penguins
is despicable.
NARRATOR: The list of sex crimes was scandalous.
Fornicating with dead bodies.
***.
And, for those days, the unthinkable, homosexuality.
In Antarctica's harsh climate,
newly hatched chicks freeze to death.
So one bird must keep them warm while the other finds food.
Survival is always a two-bird job.
MARLENE: Being part of a pair
is something that's very deep in sort of the ancestry
of penguins.
Having a partner is just a big deal in penguin society.
NARRATOR: The urge to pair up in penguins is so strong
if there are no gals around the guys will get it on.
In captivity, male couples have been known to pair up
and raise a family.
MARLENE: If you give them an egg to raise, They'll incubate it.
They'll do everything that a male-female pair would do.
The chick will hatch, and they'll be able to raise it
successfully.
NARRATOR: If that weren't shocking enough scientists were
appalled to find that even regular Adélie couples
prostituted themselves.
JANE: I mean they live in the middle of Podunk nowhere.
And they'd want to build their nests out of rocks.
OLIVIA: Now this doesn't seem like the most comfortable nest
but sometimes there is melt water
and if the nest floods then often the chicks will die
or the eggs will be abandoned, and so they build these stone
platforms.
NARRATOR: To Adélie Penguins at nesting time rocks are gold.
The price for this cherished commodity?
You guessed it.
JANE: So she will take her sexy self,
see if she can find a bachelor, with a ton of rocks,
go over there, sashay in front of them and they do a great
little sexy penguin walk.
And kind of rub on his face and get him all excited.
NARRATOR: In this penguin red light district there's no money
upfront.
She has to steal her moment.
JANE: All she has to do is kind of grab a rock
in the middle of this, slip out from under him, and return home.
NARRATOR: While the satisfied male is all a flutter his lover
has made off with a precious stone.
JONATHAN: That's an example of what we might call prostitution.
They would call it simply improving my reproductive
success by getting goods for another trade off.
NARRATOR: Adélie's *** behavior lifted the lid on sex
in the animal kingdom.
But on another continent one species turned the tables
entirely.
Few animals bust our human stereotype more
than the spotted hyena.
They're among the most aggressive creatures on earth.
On the African veldt, they can face-off with lion;
and bring down animals many times their size with cunning,
and brute force.
GREG: Their teeth are stronger even than the teeth of a lion.
They can bite through all the bones of an animal.
Eat everything.
I mean it's a killing machine.
NARRATOR: Their leader is always female.
MARLENE: They're almost always dominant over other males
in the society.
NARRATOR: Hyena females are so strong and aggressive,
because of a chemical quirk in their reproductive system.
Although a baby hyena's sex is set during fertilization
they get an extra dose of maleness in their mother's womb
in the form of male hormones, like testosterone.
OLIVIA: Testosterone allows them to be aggressive and dominant
in the way that they are.
NARRATOR: Both male and female cubs are born fighters.
But that's not all.
Their genitals look almost identical and they're big.
OLIVIA: It does seem to result in what looks to us like a,
like a monstrous genitalia.
NARRATOR: The female hyena *** looks just like a ***
JONATHAN: At least externally their genitalia are identical
to males.
They have pseudo testicles.
And they have a pseudo ***.
JANE: It looks like a ***, pees like a ***.
Acts like a ***.
Both sexes sport erections.
I mean you can't tell who is who.
NARRATOR: Human observers may get confused.
But submissive males never make that mistake.
Courting males tread a delicate balance between showings off
their potential without challenging the female.
OLIVIA: The male hyena usually approaches the female with
what looks to us like great anxiety and trepidation.
JANE: Look I'm just here for a quickie.
I promise I won't be any trouble.
I won't hurt you.
Just don't kill me.
NARRATOR: And guiding his *** into that long reproductive
tract only adds to his performance anxiety.
JANE: He has almost kind of got to push this whole big flaccid
thing, back up inside of her, in order to inseminate her.
He's walking on thin ice there.
NARRATOR: For males sex is a precarious business.
But this Girl Power does have a downside.
Masculinized female organs don't work so well when it comes
to giving birth.
A 2 pound cub doesn't always fit through a 1 inch diameter
birth canal.
OLIVIA: The *** must actually tear to allow the cub
to emerge into the world.
And sometimes this kills the cub.
Sometimes it kills the mother.
JANE: All in all it doesn't sound like a lot of fun.
I frankly can't understand why hyenas laugh.
NARRATOR: It's certainly no laughing matter for the lowly
male hyenas who are always kicked out of home
and like hang-abouts, endure two years at the bottom
of the pecking order in exchange for special favors.
Once they jump through the hoops though the hardiest males
are rewarded with the ultimate prize.
They get to pass on their genes.
MARLENE: It's all about the genes.
It's all about the genes.
In the rainforests of Central and Western Africa chimpanzees
live in large communities of up to several hundred individuals.
Males remain in their community for life.
But females leave home as soon as they hit puberty
to test the waters in a new group.
OLIVIA: Jane Goodall reports having seen a female chimpanzee
having sex with 8 different males in 15 minutes.
So there does seem to be a very high level of *** activity
among female chimpanzees.
NARRATOR: Female chimpanzees like to share themselves around.
But when it comes to sharing food each *** favors
is carefully calculated.
For chimpanzees fresh monkey is a rare treat.
It's a sweet reward for the strongest,
smartest males who win the hunt.
But they're prepared to share it for a price.
MARLENE: Females will have sex apparently
in exchange for receiving meat from a male,
so they're getting paid in meat.
JANE: I mean they are not stupid.
They know a good dark meat, monkey thigh,
is nothing but a good thing for her.
and if you're a smart woman, and the guy brings you something
good to eat, obviously he's a provider.
And obviously
this is going to make for a healthier baby.
NARRATOR: When females get dinner and a movie,
males get some pleasure and, maybe, a down payment for more.
JONATHAN: They remember their past interactions
with other individuals.
So, when a male chimp for instance, shares some meat
with a female, he's buying some credit.
JANE: I remember that dude.
That dude brought me the monkey thigh and it was delicious.
In which case
he has the leg up to being the next one to get her,
to be with her in the biblical sense.
NARRATOR: Female chimps win in other ways too.
They're buying protection for their babies.
Aggressive males can kill young chimps they haven't sired
to bring females back into oestrus
and impregnate them themselves.
MARLENE: Infanticide turns out to be
certainly more common than we ever would have thought.
We look at this and think oh it's horrible and brutal.
But it's something that works.
NARRATOR: By sharing herself around a female can muddy
the waters of fatherhood.
OLIVIA: If females have sex with many males,
then all the males think that they might be the father,
and so they are less likely to kill the baby.
NARRATOR: Chimps aren't the only ones who'll trade favors
for the welfare of their offspring.
♪ ♪ ♪
For humans across the world sleeping around can also be
a way of surviving.
♪ ♪ ♪
Especially where there are few alternatives.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
With no education and little opportunity
these women feel they have no alternative to survive.
They sell themselves to put food on the table
and raise their children.
GREG: This is what humans might call prostituting our bodies
but that's what animals do all the time.
Any animal just trading a product for sex is just doing
what comes naturally for him or her.
NARRATOR: Finding protection for themselves and their children
with regular customers who keep a roof over their heads is an
instinct that stretches way back into pre-human history.
Benefits from friends come in all forms but food and sex
seem to make a good combination
as this male nursery web spider knows.
He's gift-wrapping an irresistible lure,
a dead insect.
Nursery web spiders take the idea of a prom date corsage
to a whole new level.
But it's more than a date they're looking for.
MARLENE: If a male tries to mate
with a female without this nuptial gift,
he's lucky about 40 per cent of the time.
If he does bring a gift then 90 per cent of the time,
he's going to be able to score.
NARRATOR: This male's in luck.
He doesn't even wait for her to finish before helping himself,
to her.
But the female isn't complaining.
MARLENE: It's a really good deal for the female
because she gets something to eat.
NARRATOR: And the longer she takes to chow it down
the more time he has to deposit his ***.
It's a one-stop-shop for the female.
That is unless a cocky male decides to have his way.
By clutching onto his gift and playing dead to buy himself
a little more time for a second round.
On the eastern coast of Australia
a furry, tree-hugging, vegetarian marsupial
who's a poster child for all things soft and cuddly
is your least likely bedroom bad boy.
But male koalas don't play cupid
and they don't bother with preliminaries.
Pinning.
Biting.
Scratching.
Koala copulation sure makes the fur fly.
JANE: This is sex.
Straight up nasty sex.
JONATHAN: They're not hung up the way we tend to be.
They're not really shameful about it,
they're not shy in the way we are.
NARRATOR: It's about to get nastier.
A nearby alpha male gets wind of what's going on.
This koala is an interloper who's mating in the alpha guy's
territory.
He's marked it with special scent glands on his chest.
This is war.
The alpha male charges in
and hurls his rival to the ground.
The big guy has a message to deliver 'Don't mess with
my women again.'
MARLENE: We see animals being violent, or we see them doing
something that if humans did it,
we'd arrest them and put them in jail.
But animals just do what the animals do.
And talking about it as if there are rules,
about fidelity or about war or about kindness,
is missing the point.
NARRATOR: The point is when animals get frisky
there's all sorts of bad behavior.
Like cheating.
For many years ornithologists and bird watchers believed
their subjects were models of upright family behavior.
JONATHAN: The male and the female pair up.
The female lays her eggs.
They often both incubate.
The babies hatch out.
They both feed, it's lovely.
NARRATOR: They were advertisements for clean living
and life-long commitment in the animal world.
Role models for any human with a wandering eye.
Then DNA technology revealed the real story.
Many of the dedicated daddies were bringing up
someone else's chicks.
MARLENE: A lot of times what looks like a happily married
couple, as it were turns out to not quite be that.
NARRATOR: Study after study revealed widespread
*** affairs.
In one particularly promiscuous bird species up to 95 per cent
of all chicks are illegitimate.
JONATHAN: The male may be off getting food
or doing something else.
And then the female hops over to a neighbor territory
and mates with that male.
NARRATOR: There is one more way of getting lucky
in the bird world
making yourself irresistible.
In peafowl society, there's no such thing as an easy hook up.
Nothing happens without elaborate ritual and fanfare.
JANE: Peacocks are the most shallow of all male birds.
I mean they go through this whole thing.
They turn their back to the female.
They rustle their little white fluffy tail feathers,
and then they whip around and dazzle her.
OLIVIA: What that looks like to a female peahen
I can only imagine.
Because birds have much more
brilliant color vision than we do.
They have much more refined color vision.
NARRATOR: The male carries all the weight in these encounters.
It is he who has to impress because his chances are only
as good as his tail.
JONATHAN: It's the male peacock who has the long showy tail,
but it's really female choosiness that's driven
the evolution of that tail.
NARRATOR: Peafowl think the more impressive the tail
the better the genes they'll pass on to their young.
Competition among males is fierce as they go tail-to-tail
in a display called a lek.
OLIVIA: It's sort of like an animal nightclub.
In other words the males sing and dance,
and the females wander around, and decide
who they want to have sex with.
NARRATOR: These male beauty pageants are make or break
for auditioning wannabe fathers.
Because in the bizarre world of animal courtship
the stakes are high.
OLIVIA: If a female peahen remains unimpressed,
the male is out of luck.
No sex, no offspring, no genes passed on.
NARRATOR: Often, it's females who hold the whip hand
in the animal kingdom.
So, what does a desperate male do?
He resorts to the dirty tricks department.
NARRATOR: Animal love is full of surprises.
Ladybugs are the symbol of childhood innocence.
In fact, they were named after the *** Mary.
If only we knew!
JANE: Because they are so cute,
people just assume that everything about them is cute.
And yet their sex is not cute at all.
NARRATOR: Ladybugs don't mind playing fast and loose.
Females might live for as long as two years and may have
hundreds of eggs to get fertilized.
MARLENE: Mating with several males ensures that the female
gets all of her hundreds of eggs fertilized,
so she's sure that she hasn't mated with kind of a dud male
who has bad ***.
NARRATOR: Whether it's bad or not he has lots of it.
The oversupply might flush out the previous guy's ***
in a crude attempt at assuring paternity.
But ladybug speed dating has a price.
The beetles have one of the highest rates
of sexually transmitted disease of all the insects.
JANE: Not a happy ending but they still remain cute
in my mind no matter how vicious their sex may be.
Narrator: Off the southeast coast of Africa, is the island
of Madagascar, home to an enigmatic primate,
the ring-tailed lemur.
On the face of it, these lady lemurs rule the roost.
Each troop is headed by the strongest female
and it's the girls who decide who mates with whom.
BARBARA: They're fertile basically once a year,
sometimes twice a year.
And the male lemurs are desperate obviously to be part
of the lucky *** club.
NARRATOR: But male Lemurs don't take this rationing, lying down.
They've evolved a trick to make sure they are the first
and last to get the girl.
BARBARA: They want to be the winners.
They want their genes to progress to the next generation
and they have to compete like crazy.
NARRATOR: Their secret weapon?
A *** plug.
If a male gets the chance to mate he temporarily locks
his opponents out.
MARLENE: Males will deposit what's called a copulatory plug,
which is
secretion that's produced by his body,
that's deposited inside of her reproductive tract,
after he's already released the ***.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
And that copulatory plug will kind of harden,
and act as in effect like a cork,
keeping other males from depositing their ***.
NARRATOR: Score one to the males.
Except unfortunately, the females are, as usual,
one step ahead.
They've worked out a way to remove the plug
pretty much whenever they want.
MARLENE: The female can actually remove the copulatory plug
from her body,
which will allow her to mate with other males.
NARRATOR: Lemur ladies, it seems, have all the bases
covered in the mating game
and they're not the only ones.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
When the winter snow melts in Manitoba, Canada
snake pits begin to stir.
MARLENE: Garter snakes like all other reptiles are cold blooded,
which means that in the winter, when it's cold out
they don't move around very much.
NARRATOR: After months laid out by the cold
red-sided garter snakes slowly wake from hibernation.
It's time to have some fun.
JANE: It's like what's behind your VCR, all those cords
and things that are just a mess.
NARRATOR: Red-sided garter snakes aren't shy when it comes
to making love they kick-off mating season
with a very public party.
JANE: Everybody is starting to get excited and get in the mood.
And it all sounds really nice.
Fun.
A lovely little get ready to *** party.
NARRATOR: Females send out the invitations by releasing
pheromones.
Males don't need to be asked twice.
They turn up in droves swamping each female one hundred to one.
MARLENE: They'll all attempt to mate with her at once
and so you end up as what you might think of as giant snake
***.
NARRATOR: Tangled in a pile of writhing snake flesh the females
know that fortune favors the fittest.
In this serpentine tangle it could go anyway.
But, she's more often than not, inseminated by the big guy.
JANE: Sometimes it's better to be the girl.
Sometimes it's not.
But in most cases it's better to be the woman.
She's the one in charge here.
NARRATOR: Just to make sure the lucky father clinches the deal
he, like the lemur, leaves a copulatory plug to keep
his competitors' *** out.
OLIVIA: It seems that some kind of
chastity belt is a reasonably common male strategy to try
and prevent females from mating again.
NARRATOR: So most males end up losing,
a common fate in the animal kingdom.
The losers console themselves with more mundane garter snake
activities like finding food and fending off predators.
The winner, too, moves on, confident that his copulatory
plug has sealed the deal.
In the remote snow bound reaches of the Rockies a wolf pack
roams in search of prey.
The pack is a highly mobile, ruthlessly efficient,
hunting machine.
But in the mating department things can go a little
pear shaped.
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Alpha Wolf.
This power couple is the pack's leading, breeding pair.
And just to reinforce their special bond,
Mr. Wolf comes with his own copulatory plug,
his ***.
In wolf love
there's no such thing as a quickie.
To make sure his *** gets to the egg the *** swells
so much he's stuck.
And he can stay that way for up to half an hour.
The plus is that his *** are squeezed directly towards
the ovaries.
It might be an effective way of ensuring paternity
but it sure looks uncomfortable.
Animal sex often is.
But sometimes, to pain you can add brutality.
Bottlenose dolphins are usually regarded more
as saints than sinners.
JONATHAN: Dolphins are tactile. They like to rub.
They like to touch.
They like to insert things.
They are curious.
They are social.
They are adventurous.
NARRATOR: And they can be brutal.
Young males get together in gangs
then, as if acting out a disturbing horror movie
start stalking females.
They try to isolate one female herding her away
from the protection of the main pod.
JONATHAN: They make her sort of a *** slave.
She kind of doesn't have a lot of choice about the kind of
interaction she has with the males during that period.
NARRATOR: Males rake her with their teeth,
slap her with their fins
and bully her into being theirs.
So much for the goody two shoes image.
OLIVIA: Dolphins are very complex animals
and they are certainly not always the benevolent
apparently smiling animals that we perceive them to be.
NARRATOR: Eventually, the female gives birth to a calf.
The marauding males do a disappearing act and she's left
as a single Mom.
It might sound a little heartless but male dolphins
are do-gooders compared to some alpha guys.
The rocky shores of the Southern Ocean can be forbidding
and dangerous.
No more so than for elephant seals.
Up to 19 feet long and weighing as much as seven thousand pounds
Like sumo wrestlers, bull males go head to head
in vicious fights.
It's all about mating rights.
OLIVIA: If the beach has fifty females and he rules
the beach then he has fifty females in his harem.
NARRATOR: Chest-thumping displays are no holds barred.
When the fight is on women and children scatter.
Females know that today's winner
will be the superior mate.
OLIVIA: If you defend the beach you're the biggest,
baddest guy around then the females why look around
for somebody else.
NARRATOR: But for the losers there are few options
for venting your *** frustration.
They target younger pups, too small to defend themselves.
Youngsters are sometimes crushed
beneath that enormous weight.
These are innocent casualties.
But for other species, elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere death
by sex is the preferred option.
Australia, the flattest, driest inhabited
continent on planet earth.
Life can be tough here.
But for the male redback spider
tough takes on a whole new meaning.
Male redbacks have no choice if they want to procreate.
Their only option is suicide sex.
MARLENE: They'll start to mate with a female and insert ***
into her body, but then they'll kind of somersault over
so that they really presented themselves to her mouthparts,
and they're ready to have their blood drained out of them,
and lose their life.
NARRATOR: Resigned to his fate, the male offers himself
as a sacrifice.
He's eaten alive while his reproductive organs deliver
his *** into the female's ***-storage sacs.
OLIVIA: If the female's munching away on him,
then copulation takes longer and he is able to deposit
more ***,
and he leaves more offspring.
NARRATOR: It's his one and only shot at genetic immortality.
OLIVIA: Now this isn't as crazy as it sounds,
because actually only about 13 per cent of males ever encounter
a female.
NARRATOR: In many species, where *** cannibalism is par
for the course there's another possible upside.
When you're eaten alive by the mother of your children
you become health food.
MARLENE: They're helping to nourish the female,
which means that she's going to be able to produce more eggs.
OLIVIA: And so if they get eaten during sex,
and if this allows them to leave more offspring,
then they actually gain from being consumed.
NARRATOR: The circle of life sure takes some twists
in the animal world.
Male bees are purpose-built mating machines.
Known as drones,
they pretty much have one thing on their mind.
They're kept by the hive.
There's no nest-building drudgery.
No raising the young.
Their sole purpose is to copulate with the catch
of a lifetime, a queen.
MARLENE: The drones leave the hive and they start
flying.
So that you'll end up with lots of drones,
flying in a big swarm overhead.
They're looking for females.
If they find one they'll fly after her until finally
one of the males can catch up to her and mate.
NARRATOR: Unfortunately for the drone bee that's when
his hedonistic life stops dead.
Because, during mating, he loses his genitals,
along with his virginity.
MARLENE: The males will insert their genitalia
into the females.
They'll release their *** and at that moment,
the males just fall to the ground,
and die and that's the end of them.
My students are always kind of fascinated with this story
especially when I point out that from a male bee's perspective
that's absolutely the best thing that could ever happen to him.
JANE: The *** breaks off, and it's audible pop
that the human ear can hear. Kind of like [pop].
I know a number of people who are beekeepers,
who just sit around all day long listening for that pop.
I'm going 'That's a horrible thing to do.
The poor little devil'.
Because once it breaks off his life is over.
NARRATOR: Death by sex does have its benefits of course.
The drone gets to pass on his genes and to be absolutely sure
it's his genes the queen carries, drones take a move
from the lemur playbook.
OLIVIA: And his genitalia remain in position apparently
as a sort of chastity belt, and it seems like a bad outcome
but you might as well go out with a ***.
For all Mother Nature's exquisite color palette
of lush and green
when it comes to animals it's more like a red light district.
In Central Africa brightly colored mandrills use
inbuilt body paint to signal
when they're hot to trot.
And that red face says this male is ready and raring to go.
The more testosterone he has circulating the redder
his markings.
It's like a colorful come on.
KATHRYN: There's a constant *** signaling
back and forth between male and female and it's something
that in humans we are, are a little bit cut off from.
NARRATOR: And often, female primates are just as eager
to advertise their availability.
But it's not their faces that signal their intentions.
Living the island dream in Indonesia
are the crested black macaques.
They, too, live in large groups of males and females.
So when a lady thinks it's time for baby making
it pays to advertise.
This time it's her rear-end that say 'I'm ready'.
JANE: When a female is receptive,
it's like laying out a welcome mat for this guy.
NARRATOR: It's not just the brilliant hue
of those hindquarters it's size.
When she's really fertile, a crested black macaque
female's rear end will swell by 20 per cent.
It's a ***-licious welcome sign for all those
wannabe lovers.
JANE: If you are competing with anyone else in your troop,
you're never going to take your eye off that mystery spot.
NARRATOR: So, how highly do primates rate peering
at private parts?
The results are in.
In laboratory experiments in Durham, North Carolina,
in 2005 male rhesus macaque monkeys would trade a drink
of their favorite fruit juice for a chance to look
at a sexually receptive female's bottom.
KATHRYN: You might call it animal ***.
You might call it visual stimulation,
but whether it's the reddened
bottom of a primate that signals that it,
that she's receptive to a *** overture,
visual stimulation is widespread and important
for animal sexuality.
NARRATOR: In the animal kingdom sex signaling is a necessary
come on.
But when there's no suitable mate around some animals simply
switch to whoever's available.
It rarely happens in nature
but in captivity, when different species are kept
in close proximity
the results can be interesting.
JANE: They don't come out with like three heads or an extra leg
They just look.
You know something's different.
You just can't quite put your finger on what it is.
NARRATOR: In an Oahu, Hawaii, Sea Life Park on May 15, 1985
a captive 4 hundred pound gray female bottlenose dolphin
gave birth to an unusual baby, the first ever 'wholphin'
to be born in captivity.
The father was the only creature in the tank
a 2 thousand pound male false killer whale.
JANE: It's love the one you are with.
I'd just go sure.
You are good. You're cute.
You look kind of like me.
NARRATOR: In this case, a dolphin and a false killer
whale share a lot of DNA from the same family of cetaceans.
So the union works.
But it's rare.
MARLENE: Either the offspring can't be produced,
or if they are then they're not fertile or there is something
wrong with them but there's always exceptions.
NARRATOR: Interspecies unions remind us that
where there's a will, there's a way.
GREG: I think there is a pressure to enjoy ***
relations between animals especially if you are deprived
of them.
NARRATOR: When a male zebra mates with a female horse
they produce a 'zorse'.
A male camel and a llama make a 'cama'.
Lions and tigers create 'ligers'.
And this unlikely looking hybrid is a cross between a yak
and a bull.
Hybrids are a human no-no
but some animal sex is more human than we think.
Deep in the Congo rainforest
these bonobos look for all the world like the original
happy family.
They chill out by the river.
Share leisurely dinners.
Enjoy a little playtime with the kids
before kicking back with a spot of one-on-one grooming.
If this looks to you like the ultimate in communal
peace and harmony.
You'd be right.
JANE: It's very, I would say civilized and in many ways
much more civilized than we are.
NARRATOR: But behind all that feel-good bonobo bonhomie
is a dirty little secret.
Bonobos are one of the most sex-obsessed primate communities
on earth.
Males, females, teenagers, and children all satisfy each other
every day.
GREG: They are the most unusual animals that we know of
in engaging in recreational sex.
OLIVIA: You have males copulating with males,
females copulating with females.
NARRATOR: Bonobos seem to enjoy sex.
Be it one on one or solitary pleasuring
they'll grin and squeal in delight.
And they'll do it anywhere.
Anytime.
OLIVIA: If one were to do an animal Kama Sutra
the bonobos would have a very wide variety of positions.
They copulate face to face like we do but they also copulate
hanging from trees which most of don't.
NARRATOR: This unbridled pleasure is really just
an extreme form of grooming.
JANE: They are very tactile.
So it's just touching, smelling.
Smelling all parts is good.
Make sure.
That raises the familiarity and it also joins the troop.
JONATHAN: In terms of frequency of *** behavior,
bonobos are far ahead of us.
NARRATOR: But unlike us bonobo sex isn't a sacred union between
monogamous partners.
It's a social glue keeping everyone intimately close.
MARLENE: Bonobos use sex
kind of like social currency so that if situations get awkward,
and there is tension in the group, they'll engage in sex,
kind of as a way of defusing that tension.
NARRATOR: For many humans bonobo copulation would be considered
taboo.
But who are we to judge?
JANE: If only people got along as well as bonobos did.
If we lived up to that higher primate we'd be better off
I think.
NARRATOR: Bonobos may be the ultimate
'Friends with Benefits'.