Spontaneous ejaculation in a wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus)

Tadamichi Morisaka; Mai Sakai; Kazunobu Kogi; Akane Nakasuji; Kasumi Sakakibara; Yuria Kasanuki; Motoi Yoshioka

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072879

Spontaneous ejaculation in a wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus)

PLoS One. 2013 Aug 28;8(8):e72879. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072879. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Tadamichi Morisaka¹, Mai Sakai, Kazunobu Kogi, Akane Nakasuji, Kasumi Sakakibara, Yuria Kasanuki, Motoi Yoshioka

Affiliation

¹ Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Abstract

Spontaneous ejaculation, which is defined as the release of seminal fluids without apparent sexual stimulation, has been documented in boreoeutherian mammals. Here we report spontaneous ejaculation in a wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus), and present a video of this rare behavior. This is the first report of spontaneous ejaculation by an aquatic mammal, and the first video of this behavior in animals to be published in a scientific journal.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / physiology*
Ejaculation / physiology*
Male
Sexual Behavior, Animal / physiology*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 23220006 (URL: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.