Does A Bull Make Love For Pleasure Or Pain Relief?

        Why does a bull engage in sex?  And or what influence - beside testosterone - is important for a great ape to make love?

    Perhaps these questions are relevant to understand rape - a common sexual behavior- in the animal kingdom and to explain diverse scientific evidence which also suggest bulls , horses and apes routinely rape their female partners .

   Of psychological importance, neither an aroused bull nor a cow in heat, seems to be driven to make love by romantic urges. Or we can say that in the animal kingdom  “pleasure seeking” does not seem to matter in sexual relations.

   The crucial force? Pain and  an urgent desire for relief from suffering.  

   This observation could easily be confirmed by studying sex in many animals as diverse as cattle and horses or pigs and chimpanzees etc.

    Today, thanks to science, we know that mammalian voluntary body functions (bowel movement, urination , eating ) are  prompted by some bodily  discomfort. Hence , it seems natural for sexual acts as well to be elicited by pain.

 Yes, pain - from swollen genitals  - is probably the single most important motivator for animal sexual behavior. I suppose, It will be difficult not to empathize with a bull in pain – an unhappy bull with swollen testicles – desperate to find a soft harbor for his limb on fire.

   A horny bull is an angry bull. And it is true that In general anger and stress fuel aggression. Furthermore , on our planet  big fish eat small fish and power rules . Thus, the natural laws  do seem to promote rape as routine behavior for bulls, horses, big apes etc .

  A curious student of science may ask. How about the females of our animal kingdom?

   Science suggests cows horses and apes do seek sexual encounters mediated by their own physiology and evolution.  However, two observations about mammalian sex are worthy of  emphasis . A male and not a female determines the timing and a female never rapes.