Study About Sexual Behavior in Dolphins Finds They Love Mirrors!

Reflecting on Dolphin Sexual Behaviors: Mirrors, Self-Awareness, and Katoptronophilia Tendencies

As I explored Katoptronophilia for our Kink of the Week series, I learned that dolphins' libido increases significantly when mirrors are introduced to them during sex. Aren’t sexual behaviors in dolphins wild?!

Today, I’m going to tell you more about this. Marino Gallup became interested in whether any non-primate species could recognize itself in the mirror and, in the early 1990s, encouraged Lori Marino to explore the question. Marino exposed Pan and Delphi (two bottlenose dolphins) in an aquarium to a mirror to see if they could recognize each other. They did that for 11 days, for different amounts of time each day.

Surprisingly, the dolphins “exhibited highly synchronized behaviors at the mirror, such as repetitive head movements and posturing, as well as other repetitious movements like head circling, body tilting, head cocking, and opening of the mouth."

Another surprising and exciting finding about sexual behaviors in dolphins is that "when the mirror was covered, the dolphins engaged in sexual behaviors with each other in many different areas around the pool and in many body orientations. The pattern of these behaviors appeared to be random. But when the mirror was exposed, they engaged in sexual behaviors almost exclusively in front of the mirror. After 8.5 hours of mirror exposure, they observed increased tactile interaction and attempts between Pan and Delphi. In one 30-minute period on this day, Pan attempted intromission with Delphi 24 times, and Delphi made 19 attempts with Pan; in all cases, both dolphins were oriented to the mirror."

The most exciting fact of them all was that:

"if, during the sexual activity, their bodies would move out of the frame of the mirror, sexual behavior ceased and would only resume when both dolphins repositioned themselves in front of the mirror."

That's simply amazing, and more importantly, this study is creating more consciousness about having dolphins in captivity. But this is not the only study talking about dolphins' sexuality; another study found that "the female dolphin has a clitoris that sits at the entrance of their vaginas," and more interesting than that is the fact the researchers "saw other dolphins rubbing the newly discovered area with their snouts and flippers." It's mind-blowing how intelligent animals can be. Also, dolphins "are physically able to enjoy sex as much as humans." And apparently, they don't care if it's a male or female because in the first study I talked about, the dolphins (Delphi and Pan) were both males.

In conclusion, exploring dolphin behavior in response to mirrors sheds light on fascinating aspects of their cognitive and social capabilities. Marino Gallup and Lori Marino's research revealed intriguing patterns of synchronized behaviors and sexual activities among bottlenose dolphins in the presence of mirrors. The observations of repetitive head movements, posturing, and specific sexual behaviors exclusively in front of the mirror suggest a level of self-awareness and possibly even a form of Katoptronophilia tendencies in dolphins. The fact that sexual behaviors in dolphins were highly correlated with the mirror's presence and position further underscores the significance of mirrors in influencing dolphin behavior. These findings contribute to understanding dolphin cognition and self-recognition and highlight the complex interplay between perception, social interactions, and environmental stimuli in marine mammals.

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