Chapter 2 is lowering my expectations of this book. It remains somewhat interesting and well researched, but for a book titled ‘ Why Sex is Fun’, an extended discussion of why males of most species abandon their sex partners to raise their young alone is not exactly what I was hoping for.
I wasn’t expecting penthouse forum, but I guess I was expecting some discussion of why sex is fun.
Nevertheless, I will certainly continue reading and reporting on my progress here.
As I said above, chapter 2 parses the involvement of each parent in the rearing of offspring and finds (unsurprisingly) that this directly correlates with two things:
- Certainty of paternity
- Energy investment in making each offspring vs the ability of this offspring to survive in the absence of care.
Paternity Testing
Together, these considerations account for why males of many (but not all) species tend to be dead-beats. Given the low cost of sperm production and the ability to reproduce with a number of females concurrently, coupled with the lack of assurance that any given child is the male’s own, it pays to remain uninvolved in raising any one specific (potential) offspring.
Several exceptions to the rule are presented and a few good considerations that must be made to actually weigh against the low cost of sperm – just because it’s cheap to make one doesn’t mean one is enough. And sometimes women aren’t that eager to have sex with you just because you have sperm. – Amazing!
Male penguins incubating eggs while mom is away
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