They call it Guppy Love

In the article “They call it guppy love” UCLA scientists discovered an evolution mystery. The male guppy has consistently changed color for over a half a million years but one thing always stayed constant an orange patch. It slightly changed being redder or more yellow at times but it was always consistent. These scientists discovered that it is because that’s what the female guppies
like. The males have evolved over and over again because that is what the ladies like. The orange patches are made up of two things, carotenoids, which are digested, and drosopterins which are produced. They discovered that the males with the middle color orange. Not to yellow and not to red. The females chose the males with intermediate amounts of drosopterins by a significant margin. Males with the right color orange typically produce more offspring because the
females are more attracted to them.

New Found Squid: Any Sex Will Do

New York Times - Sept. 20, 2011
 
   In this extremely interesting article, scientists have found a new creature in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean. Octopoteuthis deletron, the newly discovered squid, carries similar characteristics to mammals such as bottlenose dolphins and bonobos. They all have no particular preference when it comes to mating.
     The mating process for this particular squid is interesting to say the least. Not much is known in great detail, but it is described as a male squid ejaculating a packet of sperm at the partner, male or female. The sperm is contained in a membrane that shoots into the flesh of the receiver. If the male happens to mate with a female, the sperm remains inside of the female until the female is fertile and able to produce eggs. The male however remains stuck with the sperm.
     This, by far, was the most intriguing article I found. I understand that there are millions of creatures that we have yet to discover, but yet I am still amazed when reading about each new finding.

Horse Blind Date Could Lead To Loss Of Foal

Scientists Ludek Batros and colleagues in the Czech Republic Institute of Animal Science have studied reproductive behavior in female horses (mares). In particular, they studied mares aborting their foals when they have been taken away from home to mate with a new stallion, and then returning back home to their original herd with a familiar stallion. The article says, "When mares return home after mating with a foreign stallion, their either engage in promiscuous mating with the home males to confuse paternity, or, failing that, the mares abort the foal to avoid the likely future infanticide by the dominant home male." The study, which was conducted through a questionnaire to horse owners in the Czech Republic, discovered that "Mares mated with a foreign stallion aborted in 31 percent of cases while none of the mares mated within the home stable aborted."

After looking at the data gathered, it was determined that in a herd of horses if the dominant male horse is not the father of the new foal, he may "attempt infanticide." The mares sense this and if kept in separate enclosures, "they are seven times more likely to abort the fetus, to prevent the waste of energy in producing offspring likely to be lost." The study concluded that "the regular practice of transporting the mare for mating or artificial insemination with a foreign stallion, and then bringing her back to an environment with home males, is probably one of the main causes of such high percentages of pregnancy disruption in domestic horses." Although this is an interesting find, it might not affect American horses as much as those in the Czech Republic. Horses in the United States are generally kept at boarding stables or on private property with very few, if any, stallions. Artificial insemination is the most common method of breeding, and the mares keep those foals because they do not have access to "home males" that would cause them to abort the foal. Stallions are hard to keep and most owners in the United States choose to have their males gelded. So when they are looking to breed their horse, most Americans do not have a "home male" (stallion) on hand.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110329100123.htm

http://www.horserepro.com/