A study in the forthcoming July edition of The American Naturalist journal by Jakob Bro-Jørgensen of the United Kingdom’s Liverpool University and Wiline Pangle of Michigan State University, finds that male topi antelopes in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve used false lion cries to deceive ovulating female antelopes who intend to leave a male’s territory into believing that they are headed toward a predator forcing them to stop and return to mate.
“This is extraordinary research of mating behavior that we can learn from” exclaimed one exuberant scientist. A male scientist who was not part of the research team went further and said that he believed that this research can help men develop a solution to the “I have a headache” excuses that women use to avoid having sex with their partners”.
When asked about the application of this study to human behavior, a female scientist at the University of Linderpool said that women’s excuses are different. “While ignoring a warning may lead to death to an antelope if it is real, for a woman it is different. Ignoring whatever false warnings a partner makes, gets the woman more time to sleep”
Several scientists interviewed for this article were in agreement that men have begun to apply these male antelope behaviors into their own lives, as one scientist explained: “The fact that we now have prenuptial agreements that even dictate how many times a partner is supposed to have sex per week not only overcomes the headache excuses but also shows that there is a male antelope in every man”.
