Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 May 2020 | 12(8): 15945–15946
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5893.12.8.15945-15946
#5893 | Received 23 March 2020 | Final
received 29 April 2020 | Finally accepted 06 May 2020
An observation of homosexual
fellatio in the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius (Temminck, 1825)
(Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae)
K.S. Gopi Sundar
1 & Swati Kittur
2
1,2 Nature Conservation Foundation,
1311, “Amritha”, 12th A Main, Vijaynagar, 1st Stage, Mysore 570017, Karnataka,
India.
1 gopi@ncf-india.org (corresponding
author), 2 swatikittur@ncf-india.org
Editor: Paul Racey,
University of Exeter, UK. Date of publication: 26 May
2020 (online & print)
Citation: Sundar, K.S.G. & S. Kittur (2020). An observation of homosexual fellatio in the Indian
Flying Fox Pteropus medius
(Temminck, 1825) (Mammalia: Chiroptera:
Pteropodidae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(8): 15945–15946. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5893.12.8.15945-15946
Copyright: © Sundar & Kittur 2020. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We thank Dr.
Satish Sharma and Mr. Vinay Dave for inviting us to explore Nagawli
Lake with them. We also thank an anonymous reviewer for a very rapid turnaround
and thoughtful suggestions.
Apart from a small number of
primate species, bats appear to be unique in the animal world in practising
oral sex. These acts include fellatio
(Tan et al. 2009; Sugita 2016) and cunnilingus (Maruthupandian
& Marimuthu 2013) with observations suggesting
that such behaviours are usually carried out between heterosexual pairs to help
improve fertilization. In addition to oral sex, bats are unusual in engaging in
homosexual acts, the utility of which appear to have generated considerable
discussion with no understanding yet as to why bats might engage in such sexual
behaviour (Kunz & Hosken 2009). Homosexual behaviour included mounting and
jousting, and observations indicate that genital licking was limited to pairs
of subordinate males (Riccucci 2011). Homosexual fellatio has been observed in bats
but appears to be rare and has been observed only in one species, the Bonin Flying
Fox Pteropus pselaphon
(Sugita 2016). In Indian bats, oral sex
has been observed in heterosexual pairs (Maruthupandian
& Marimuthu 2013), and homosexual behaviour with
males mounting other males has been observed in captivity (see references in Riccucci 2011).
Sexual behaviours are poorly documented in Indian bats owing to the
difficulty of observing bats that roost in dark spaces making direct
observations challenging. In this note,
we describe an observation of homosexual fellatio in the Indian Flying Fox Pteropus medius (formerly
P. giganteus).
On 17 March 2020, we visited Nagawli lake beside the village of Nagawli
in Chittaurgarh District of southern Rajasthan. A roosting colony of Indian Flying Foxes used
large mango trees that bordered the lake and numbered ~ 300 individuals. One pair of bats roosted away from other bats
and attracted our attention by their regular jousting. This included beating each other with their patagium,
wrestling with the patagium wrapped around each other, and snapping at each
other’s faces. Between sessions of
jousting, one male bat performed repeated acts of fellatio on the second bat
(recipient). This included licking the
recipient on the scrotum (Image 1a), licking the shaft and tip of the penis
(Image 1b), and twice taking the penis into his mouth between episodes of
licking the tip (Image 1c). Both bats
also licked their own penises intermittently (Image 1d), and the recipient
never performed fellatio on the other male bat.
The bat performing the fellatio appeared to get aroused starting with a
flaccid penis at the beginning of the interaction (Image 1a) and gained a
prominent erection within a few seconds (Image 1d). The recipient had an erect penis when
interactions began (not photographed) and a flaccid penis after fellatio began
(Image 1), however, the recipient did not do anything to stop the fellatio,
instead it kept closing its eyes briefly (Image 1b). The two bats also groomed themselves and each
other during the interaction that lasted about three minutes (0959 to 1002
h). Observations were disturbed by human
activity near the tree that resulted in all the bats taking flight.
Homosexual fellatio has not
previously been described in the Indian Flying Fox though a number of published
studies are available on the copulatory and other sexual behaviours of this
species (Koilraj et al. 2001; Maruthupandian
& Marimuthu 2013; Kumar et al. 2017). Male-male
fellatio has been observed and described in the closely related Bonin Flying
Fox, where males licked scrota and the erect penis of other males in the colony
(Sugita 2016). Our observation had a few novel features in that only one of the
bats performed the fellatio and also gained an erection during the act. Taking the penis into the mouth was also
exceedingly unusual and has probably not been observed before in bats. Female-male fellatio appears to be correlated
to copulation length signifying a clear function (Tan et al. 2009). Homosexual fellatio, on the other hand, is
rare and is suspected to help males resolve aggressive relationships within
colonies (Sugita 2016). We echo past
assertions that many more behavioural studies are needed on Indian and other
bats and will be crucial in enhancing the growing number of suspicions
regarding bat socio-biology.
References
Koilraj, B., G. Agoramoorthy
& G. Marimuthu (2001). Copulatory behaviour of Indian
flying Fox Pteropus giganteus.
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(2013). Cunnilingus
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