<story><title>One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adbge</author><text>Note that the author doesn&apos;t claim that humans are the only species who masturbates, but rather that humans masturbate the most often. The author goes on to speculate that this is because humans have the ability to fantasize, though I think the claims that humans masturbate more than any other animal and that chimps are unable to fantasize dubious.&lt;p&gt;If you found this article interesting (or amusing, as it very well may be), you may want to check out the Wikipedia page on the Bonobo ape, one of the few species that have been observed to participate in oral sex. Primatologist Frans de Waal described the Bonobo as &quot;the erotic champions of the world.&quot;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;Another fun fact: homosexual behavior has been well documented in both the Bonobo and koalas, an interesting counterpoint to fundamentalists claims that homosexuality isn&apos;t natural. :) [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-australia-rocked-by-lesbian-koala-revelation-437806.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-...&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;Further reading: [&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;And a graphic video of a monkey masturbating with a frog (because, after all, this is the internet): [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ&lt;/a&gt;]</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>btilly</author><text>That isn&apos;t actually what the author claims.  Lots of other animals masturbate, and the author admits that monkeys are certainly prone to it.  What he claims makes humans unusual is the we masturbate &lt;i&gt;to orgasm&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Incidentally you chose fairly poor examples for animal homosexuality.  See &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals&lt;/a&gt; for a list of other examples you could use.  For instance I prefer to cite giraffes (9 out of 10 sexual encounters are homosexual) and black swans (1/4 preferentially homosexual).</text></comment>
<story><title>One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>adbge</author><text>Note that the author doesn&apos;t claim that humans are the only species who masturbates, but rather that humans masturbate the most often. The author goes on to speculate that this is because humans have the ability to fantasize, though I think the claims that humans masturbate more than any other animal and that chimps are unable to fantasize dubious.&lt;p&gt;If you found this article interesting (or amusing, as it very well may be), you may want to check out the Wikipedia page on the Bonobo ape, one of the few species that have been observed to participate in oral sex. Primatologist Frans de Waal described the Bonobo as &quot;the erotic champions of the world.&quot;[&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;Another fun fact: homosexual behavior has been well documented in both the Bonobo and koalas, an interesting counterpoint to fundamentalists claims that homosexuality isn&apos;t natural. :) [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-australia-rocked-by-lesbian-koala-revelation-437806.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-...&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;Further reading: [&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;p&gt;And a graphic video of a monkey masturbating with a frog (because, after all, this is the internet): [&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ&lt;/a&gt;]</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>roc</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;&quot;I think the claims that humans masturbate more than any other animal and that chimps are unable to fantasize dubious&quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition to skepticism due other masturbating animals, there&apos;s the question of human child masturbation.  Anyone who&apos;s had children can vouch that they&apos;re rubbing the parts that feel good well before they&apos;re expressing complex ideas, let alone thinking &lt;i&gt;sexually&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;And, FWIW, I believe homosexuality has been well documented in every sexual species that&apos;s been well documented.</text></comment>