Male Pond Skaters Don’t Take “NO” For an Answer

pond skater

And you think this sort of thing only happens in people society… Apparently the male pond skaters play on the fears of females to coerce them into having sexual intercourse. The fear that they tap into is the fear of predators.

This rather surprising sexual behavior was discovered by Professors Chang Han and Piotr Jablonski of Seoul National University in South Korea.

Female pond skaters appear to have the upper hand when it comes to when and if they engage in sexual intercourse because they have a “chastity belt” type covering over their genitals. This means that a male pond skater can only get some action if and when the female decides to let them in.

However, Professors Han and Jablonski have found that males will cause ripples in the surface of the water during courtship rituals, and these ripples attract fish from down below.

The male will keep making these ripples in the water, until the female consents to have sexual intercourse with him, much like a child will stamp his feet to get his way. However, this obviously has more severe implications for the pond skater than the child, as the child won’t be eaten by something if they don’t stop.

What makes this all the more interesting, is that the females were more likely to give in to the male’s desire to engage in sexual activity if she had experienced a predator attack in the past.

However, there was no conclusive link to see if a male was less persistent if the same had happened to him…