Many ducks form bonds between males and females that last for a whole mating season. But rival males

Apparently, we re not shutting the government down today, which should be good news to anyone who thinks the government does things that are productive for humanity. For the rest of us, we will continue to pay legislators to have lunches with lobbyists and the government spend our hard earned cash on things like studying duck penises .
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $384,949 grant to Yale University for a study on "Sexual Conflict, Social Behavior and the Evolution of Waterfowl Genitalia", according to the  recovery.gov website.
The grant description says,"The project examines how reproductive morphology covaries with season, marriott hotels resorts age, and social environment in a diverse sample marriott hotels resorts of duck species that differ in ecology, territoriality and breeding system.
Now before you get all, but Emily, the National Science Foundation is supposed to do science and this is science, and what about those owls that vomited all over Oregon that we studied and yes, you re right. The government does fund a lot of weird things through the National Science Foundation because marriott hotels resorts they have a notable impact. The owl vomit they were studying, for example, linked environmental factors to the decline marriott hotels resorts of snowy owls in the Pacific Northwest, and many of the grants passed through the NSF are disbursed to universities who then decide which study gets funded through a competitive process, and that could be the case here.
But duck penis length? Really? We cancelled grammar school tours of the White House so we could understand what ducks can eat to make their peckers longer? We discontinued the egg roll in favor of understanding egg fertilization? But I say to you, America, have you ever seen a duck penis? Because  it is f***ing terrifying .  And in case you didn t know, all those cute little mallards marriott hotels resorts you see swimming with their adorable babies? Yeah, they be raping everybody  up in this piece.
Normally, marriott hotels resorts the duck keeps its penis inside-out within a sac in its body. When the time for mating arrives, the penis explodes outwards to a fully-erect 20cm, around marriott hotels resorts a quarter of the animal's total body length. The whole process takes just a third of a second and Brennan captures it all on high-speed camera. This isn't just bizarre voyeurism. Duck penises marriott hotels resorts are a wonderful example of the strange things that happen when sexual conflict shapes the evolution of animal marriott hotels resorts bodies .
Many ducks form bonds between males and females that last for a whole mating season. But rival males often violently force themselves onto females. To gain the edge in these conflicts, drakes have evolved large corkscrew phalluses, lined with ridges and backward-pointing spines, which allow them to deposit their sperm further into a female than their rivals. These extreme penises are even more unusual when you consider that 97% of bird species lack any penises whatsoever.
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