Editing Animal sexual behaviour (section)

===Coercive sex===
Controversial interpretations and implications aside (see [[Sociobiological theories of rape]]), sex in a forceful or apparently coercive context has also been documented in a variety of species. A notable example is [[bottlenose dolphin]]s, where at times, gangs of [[bachelor herd|bachelor]] males 'corner' females.<ref>N. Angier, ''New York Times'' 18th February 1992, 'Dolphin courtship: brutal, cunning and complex' </ref> Furthermore, in a zoo where it is common practice to put newly captured dolphins in with dolphins who are established in their enclosures, other species of dolphin are never put in together with bottlenoses because they frequently torment and rape them.<ref>M. Ventura, 'The zoo where you're fed to God', ''L.A. Weekly'' 11-17 December 19992, p. 18</ref>
The behaviour is also common in some [[arachnid]]s (spiders), notably those whose females eat the males during sex if not tricked with food and/or tied down with threads,<ref>Making Love Can Be real Sacrifice: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/10/1060454080025.html?from=storyrhs, retrieved Nov 6 2007</ref> and in some [[herbivore|herbivorous]] herd species or species where males and females are very different in size, where the male dominates sexually by sheer force and size.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} 

Some species of birds appear to combine sexual intercourse with apparent violent assault; these include [[duck]]s,<ref>R.O.Bailey, N. R. Seymour and G.R. Stewart, 'Rape behaviour in blue-winged teal', ''Auk'' 95 (1978), pp. 188-90.  Also D.P. Barash, 'Sociobiology of rape in mallards  (Anas platyrhynchos): responses of the [[mated]] male;, ''Science''197(19 August 1977) pp. 788-9''</ref> [[geese]], and [[white-fronted bee-eater]]s.  According to Emlen and Wrege (1986)<ref>S.T. Emlen and P.H. Wrege 'Forced copulations and intraspecific parasitism: two costs of social living in the white-fronted bee-eater' ''Ethology'' 71 (1986) pp.2-29</ref> forced copulations occur in this socially nesting species, and females must avoid the unwelcome attention of males as they emerge from their nest burrows or they are forced to the ground and mated with.  Apparently, such attacks are made preferentially on females who are laying and who may thus mother their offspring as a result.

In 2007, research suggested that in the ''[[Acilius]]'' [[genus]] of [[water beetle]]s (also known as "diving beetles"), an "evolutionary arms race" between the genders means that there is no courtship system for these beetles. "It's a system of rape. But the females don't take things quietly. They evolve counter-weapons." Cited mating behaviours include males suffocating females underwater till exhausted, and allowing only occasional access to the surface to breathe for up to six hours (to prevent them breeding with other males), and females which have a variety of body shapings (to prevent males from gaining a grip). Foreplay is "limited to the female desperately trying to dislodge the male by swimming frantically around."<ref>''[[The Times]]'', 25 June 2007 p.25, and online at [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1980376.ece "Not tonight, not ever. I’ve got a headache. Don’t come near me"]</ref>

Charles Siebert reports in his New York Times article ''Elephant Crackup?'' that:

{{quote|Since the early 1990’s, for example, young male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa have been raping and killing rhinoceroses; this abnormal behaviour, according to a 2001 study in the journal Pachyderm, has been reported in ‘‘a number of reserves’’ in the region.|<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=ccc63627f454863c&ex=1167282000 ''An Elephant Crackup?'', Charles Siebert, New York Times Magazine, October 8, 2006.]</ref>}}