Turns out flying foxes have polyamorous bisexual orgies for hours
Image: Just a bunch of bats with boners: a group of male flying foxes engage in male-male genital licking. Look at 'em go! (Image: Norimasa Sugita / licensed under Creative Commons).
Flying foxes are well-known for their noisy habits, but research suggests their squabbling may result from feasting on more than just fruit.
The animals are known for having very slow reproductive rates and it turns out that may be because they just like to spend a really, really long time blowing each other, according to Australian Geographic.
Though they’re unpopular with farmers, flying foxes are surely popular with each other for their thorough investment in foreplay.
The airborne animals truly go above and beyond, spending hours on cunnilingus and licking the penises of their partners.
Scientists have discovered that their oral fixation goes beyond mere pleasure, with their blowjobs helping to blow out the duration of their copulation.
“Initially males groomed their penis before approaching a nearby female. Females typically moved away and males followed,” according to an Indian study published in PLOS One.
“When the female stopped moving, the male started licking her vagina (cunnilingus)… it appears that bats, especially pteropodids, perform oral sex, either cunnilingus or fellatio, possibly for achieving longer copulation.”
Female short-nosed fruit bats are particularly talented actually performing some kind of Kama Sutra fellatio on male bats while being penetrated.
But it seems that the foxes’ sexual appetites are fairly insatiable and unrestrained by mainstream notions of sexuality.
A paper entitled ‘Homosexual Fellatio: Erect Penis Licking Between Male Bonin Flying Foxes Pteropus pselaphon’ studies the tendencies of male flying foxes to turn their attentions on each other as well.
The research explores whether the bats just love a bit of Vitamin D, or if it’s a social measure designed to reduce conflict in roosts. Basically, it’s a sexy power move.
“The direction in genital licking behavior was divided into four categories,” the study reads.
“(1) one male licking another male’s penis and scrota (male–male genital licking), (2) one male licking a female’s vulva (male-female genital licking), (3) female–female genital licking, and (4) female-male genital licking.
“During autogrooming, males also licked their own penises and achieved erections.”
Research has already established flying foxes’ polyamorous ways – the bats don’t even stick with one partner for a whole day before they move on to the next conquest.
The megabats join the gay animal mafia alongside lions, penguins, dolphins and many more.
So next time you hear flying foxes camped out in a tree nearby you can pause, smile, and think, “Nice.”
