animals obviously hook up, at least during mating season. but do they like it? according to experts, there are two answers: "yes" and "it is impossible to know."
"mosquitoes, i don’t know," hedged mark bekoff, a university of colorado biologist and author of "the emotional lives of animals" (new world library), "but across mammals, they enjoy sex."
in fact the enjoyment of sex among humans and among animals may be similar in that it's all experienced in very primitive parts of the brain.
really wild orgasms
not only do animals enjoy the deed, they also likely have orgasms, he said. they are difficult to measure directly but by watching facial expressions, body movements and muscle relaxation, many scientists have concluded that animals reach a pleasurable climax, he said.
then why do, say, wolves abstain most of the year? "it is not that they don’t like it, it is just who they are," bekoff said. in the wild, having sex makes one vulnerable to attack. for example, a male wolf gets "locked" inside the female for up to a half hour, he said. besides, if wolves got it on during the summer, it would be poor family planning; their delicate pups would be born in the dead of winter, he said.
humans, though, are not alone in wanting sex regardless of reproductive timing. bonobos and possibly dolphins also pursue sex recreationally, bekoff said.
al that said, we can never completely know another being's emotional state, bekoff points out, adding that it can even be hard to judge that of a human. and we can't ask a tomcat how his date went last night.
kent berridge, a biopsychologist at the university of michigan, compared the brain activity and facial expressions of animals to that of a more readable creature: human infants. when given something pleasurable to taste, both rats and humans make almost identical mouth shapes and sucking motions. their brain reactions also mirror one another. if we believe the infant "enjoys" the sweet taste based on her pleasant expression, it follows that the rat likely enjoys it too.
primitive feelings
sweets and sex — as well as drugs, winning the lotto and every other rewarding experience —stimulate the same brain circuit, said berridge, and this pleasure circuit is common to both human and non-human animals. his experiments suggest a further homology, one of emotional experience.
"our chief anatomical difference from [other animals] is up in the prefrontal cortex," explained berridge, but the generation of pleasure is happening at "lower" brain structures. the human cortex may interpret pleasurable sensations and assign them special meaning (or not). in this way, a human’s experience of sex may be qualitatively different than an animal’s, but no less (or more) enjoyable.
and of course, nature offers her own proof that sex is pleasurable: plentiful offspring.
"there are damn good evolutionary reasons for animals to enjoy sex and have orgasms," said bekoff. "my null hypothesis is that they do," he said, adding a challenge: "prove that they don't."
至少来说在发情期的时候，动物们是沉溺在性爱中的。但是他们真的喜欢性爱吗？专家则告诉我们，或许有2种不同的答案：“是的它们喜欢”或者“根本不可能知道”。
“蚊子，我就搞不明白”美国科罗拉多州立大学生物学家以及《动物们的情感生活》的作者，mark bekoff比较隐晦的回答，“但是，通过研究，我发现哺乳动物就是喜欢性爱的。”
事实上，享受性爱的乐趣对于人和动物是比较相似的，因为他们都受到大脑很微妙的影响。
动物们也是存在性高潮的
“动物们不仅仅享受性爱的过程，他们同样也喜欢性高潮。”mark bekoff说，我们很难通过一些比较直接的手段去观察动物是否到达性高潮。但是很多科学家却有个共识：可以通过观察动物们的面部表情，身体的动作和肌肉的放松，去判断他们是否达到了性高潮。
很多人会疑问，为什么动物们一年有性需求的时候就那么几天吗？难道这也能说他们真的喜欢性爱吗？bekoff说：“关于这一点，并不是因为他们不喜欢，而是他们自身的一些限制。”在野外，做爱无疑是暴露自己的弱点，而且很容易遭受袭击。举个例子，狼爸爸把宝贝放在狼妈妈的身体里至少也需要半个小时。出此之外，如果他们在夏季交配，那么这一定是个很糟糕的家庭计划，因为弱不经风的狼宝宝在冬季出生是很危险滴。
bekoff 说：人类并不是唯一拿性爱来消遣的动物，有一种黑猩猩和海豚也会这样。
也就是说，我们很难完全的琢磨透一种动物的性生活状况。bekoff 特别指出：“人类就更不可能了。”因为我们不可能去问汤姆猫上一次云雨之欢是在什么时候。
密歇根州立大学的生物心理学家kent berridge，通过脑部的活跃情况和面部的表情反应，把动物和比较感性的人类宝宝作了下比较。他发现，如果在品尝一些味道非常棒的食物的时候，老鼠和宝宝都有一样的嘴部吸允动作。也就是说，如果我们认为婴儿宝宝喜欢品尝甜甜的味道，那么同理于一样的快乐表显方式，老鼠们也一定喜欢这种味道了噢。
原始的满足感
甜品，性和药物当他们刺激你的脑部循环所带来的快感，远胜于你赢一场牌或者其他各种奖励。berridge说，这种快感是人类和非人类动物所具有的共性。并且通过实验，从某种感情上的经验来说，他认为:人和动物源于一个祖先。
berridge解释到：“从解剖学的角度，人类与其他动物最大的区别是大脑前叶部分。”而感情因素产生的地方却是在大脑质地的下方，因为人类的脑前叶有控制理智的作用。从这种角度来说，人类的性过程在质量上与其他动物有很大的不同，而不是单纯的多或者少的那种快感。
当然，动物们的天性会把他们的性欲控制在一个合理的范围，来保护他们的子孙后代。
“动物们享受性爱并且达到性高潮，是为了更好的进化。”bekoff说：“我这种假设无法得证，但无疑是正确的，你如果想要证明并不是那样，将会是自找麻烦。”