Copulatory Behaviours in Animals: Mounting, Intromission, and Ejaculation

Copulatory behaviours in animals refer to the series of physiological and behavioral actions that occur during mating. These behaviours are essential for successful reproduction and typically include mounting, intromission, and ejaculation.

Mounting

The sexually stimulated active male mounts the female. Few initial mountings may not be successful with dribbling from the penis. During this process of mounting the movement of hind limbs and contractions of rectus abdominis muscle will align the penis horizontally and vertically to seek the vulva for intromission. The male will fix its forelimbs around the females body and will perform rhythmic pelvic thrusts.

Intromission

Successful entry of the penis into the vagina is called as intromission. The thrusting movement of the pelvis will help intromission.

The vulvar moisture and heat is identified by to and pro movement of the penis and the sensory nerves of the penis is stimulated. This is major factor for intromission.

 Stallion oscillates the pelvis many times, engorgement of penis occurs and finally the intromission occurs.

Ejaculation

The time of ejaculation varies with the species.

The animals like bull and ram will ejaculate in short period of time (within one or two seconds) and are called as short copulators whereas the boar and dog will take longer duration up to 30 minutes for ejaculation and are called as sustained copulators. The stallion is intermediate copulator (20 seconds to 1 minute) with regard to duration of copulation.

In bull and ram the ejaculation is stimulated by warm temperature of the vagina. But in stallions and boar, the vaginal pressure is important when compared to temperature.