"Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Intermittently."
07 November 2009
This is not a five-legged elephant
At Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong explains why the elephant has prehensile appendages at both ends of its body. Yes, prehensile. Apparently the dolphin also has a prehensile penis.
Interesting that the blog post you linked to for dolphins features a photograph of an orca (killer whale) -- which is, in fact, the largest member of the dolphin family. A cool factoid, but one most people don't know. At any rate, I can offer eyewitness confirmation of the prehensile capabilities of an orca's penis. I worked at a public aquarium which displayed a rather well-known orca, and can't even tell you how many times he would happily pick up one of his toys (a large, very tough plastic ball) with his penis, tuck it between his penis and his ventral body surface, and swim about his exhibit...much to the dismay of our docents, who were left scrambling to explain this to curious visitors. Ironically, women tended to find this far more amusing than men, who often seemed uncomfortable with the concept.
Interesting that the blog post you linked to for dolphins features a photograph of an orca (killer whale) -- which is, in fact, the largest member of the dolphin family. A cool factoid, but one most people don't know. At any rate, I can offer eyewitness confirmation of the prehensile capabilities of an orca's penis. I worked at a public aquarium which displayed a rather well-known orca, and can't even tell you how many times he would happily pick up one of his toys (a large, very tough plastic ball) with his penis, tuck it between his penis and his ventral body surface, and swim about his exhibit...much to the dismay of our docents, who were left scrambling to explain this to curious visitors. Ironically, women tended to find this far more amusing than men, who often seemed uncomfortable with the concept.
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