Hey, Neil deGrasse Tyson, These Animals Have Sex That Hurts
Some people seem to think that animal sex wouldn't exist if it hurt. Those people are wrong.
Credit: Gary Cranitch/Queensland MuseumGary Cranitch/Queensland Museum
Today, Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted this...
It seemed … not quite right. And we can prove it.
Gary Cranitch/Queensland MuseumAntechinus
The antechinus, for example, is a marsupial that lives in Australia. Its males [have so much sex](http://www.wired.com/2014/05/absurd-creature-of-the-week-this-marsupial-has-marathon-sex-until-it-goes-blind-and-drops-dead/) that they bleed internally and go blind and their hair falls out and they die. Photo: Gary Cranitch/Queensland Museum
Kelly ShimodaCats
House cats—cute, cuddly, sometimes grumpy—have [barbed penises](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.1091570111/abstract) that scrape up the ladies’ insides something fierce. Yup: penile spines. Photo: Kelly Shimoda
Klaas van Haeringen/ Buiten-beeld/Getty ImagesPraying Mantis
Female [praying mantises](http://www.wired.com/2015/01/animal-cannibalism/) (and a lot of female spiders) eat the males after mating. Listen, a lot of people get the munchies after sex. Photo: Klaas van Haeringen/Buiten-beeld/Getty Images
Claude Robidoux/Getty ImagesDucks
Female duck vaginas [corkscrew in the opposite direction](http://www.wired.com/2009/12/muscovy-duck-sex/) of male ducks’ penises. This is apparently evolution's way of keeping the males out, because male ducks are assholes. Photo: Claude Robidoux/Getty Images
David ShaleAnglerfish
[Anglerfish males](http://www.wired.com/2013/11/absurd-creature-of-the-week-anglerfish/) fuse their faces to females’ bodies and they live the rest of their lives like that, stuck together while they release sperm and eggs at the same time. Romantic? Perhaps. Painful? Hard to tell. Comfortable? No. We're going with no. Photo: David Shale/NOAA
Kamil BialousBed bugs
Bed bugs are [traumatic inseminators](http://www.wired.com/2015/02/50-shades-wrong-disturbing-insect-sex/). Males pierce the females' abdomens with their sharp penises and inseminate them. Photo: Kamil Bialous
Clayton CubittPeople
Everything's not always awesome down there, you guys. Human sex can be painful, for both parties, and it's a treatable disorder called dyspareunia. Yet somehow, we're still here. Photo: Clayton Cubitt
