Chp 4: Hormonal Influences on Male Sex Behavior

Male sex behavior can be divided into two main components:

• precopulatory behavior:

  • production of ultrasonic vocalizations
  • chemoinvestigation (sniffing of the female’s anogenital region)

• copulatory behavior:

  • mounts: male mounts the female from behind
  • intromissions: male, with an erected penis, inserts penis into the female’s vagina
  • ejaculations: explusion of a copulatory plug--composite of different secretions from prostate gland, seminal vesicle and coagulating gland plus sperm; this composite will “coagulate” forming a plug that serves to keep the sperm within female’s reproductive system and increase likelihood of fertilization

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