Scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences' Department of Wildlife Conservation caught a couple of male bears engaging in oral sex.
The pair of male brown bears have been held in captivity in Croatia, where they've been under observation for six years and 116 hours. The researchers led by Agnieszka Sergiel documented that the male bears had oral sex for 28 times during the period.
According to the team's observation, it was always the larger bear who would receive the fellatio. There were many cases in which he reached orgasm, as evidenced by his muscle contractions and the fluid seen in the muzzle of the smaller bear. After the oral sex, the larger bear would always push the smaller bear away or turn his back on him.
Sergiel's team called their study as "first observations of long‐term, recurrent fellatio in captive brown bears kept in proper conditions after being orphaned," as quoted by LiveScience. Previous studies observed bears engaging in fellatio, masturbation, or auto-fellatio, but these were all deemed to be abnormal behaviors due to living in poor conditions.
The two bears observed in the study were unrelated bears who both lost their parents in 2003. Since then, they lived together in the sanctuary in Croatia. The researchers believed that the bears behaved that way because both wanted to have sexual rewards. In the animal kingdom, there were many species that engaged in non-reproductive sexual tasks.
Researchers believed that the bears in this study preformed fellatio for their own sexual gratification. The team was baffled by the fact that the smaller bear, who always provided the oral sex, was also the one who consistently initiated it. One hypothesis made by the team was that the bears did not experience suckling their mothers, which could be comforting and relaxing for them especially during their youth.
The researchers concluded that that fellatio could be some way of gratifying the smaller bear's oral fixation.
Findings of the study were published in the June 16 issue of Zoo Biology.
