Scientists have found the world’s most promiscuous bird according to the BBC. Now I love a good story about a slutty bird or two, so I was intrigued. The saltmarsh sparrow, found in the marshes of Connecticut, developed its loose morals as an evolutionary reaction to flooding. Just in case a mother loses her eggs in a flood she needs to shack up quickly with any bird she can find. There is a chance his genetic material will be pants. To avoid poor offspring they hedge their bets with several mates, so scientists don’t doubt that knobbing multiply partners isn’t a good tactic. Supposedly “The researchers found that 95% of females mated with more than one male during each nesting period.”, the dirty little whores. On average chicks in the same nest had a 23% chance of having the same father, not too dissimilar to family statistics in Croydon.
The best thing about this story was the BBC’s choice of headline “Sexy sparrow exposed as world’s most promiscuous bird”. Just because they have a lot of sex doesn’t make them sexy. I know plenty of munters that have sex all the time. Though alcohol has a large part to play. I can only assume that the author Jody Bourton is some kind of avian pervert. Saying that though, I’ve written about the sexual habits of sparrows and chimps in the past week, so it could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Finally enjoy the soulful sound of Timberland and Nelly Furtado:
The Quirk
Simple Sci-man 