by Staff writer
Prostitution is the act of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment.
Research has enumerated the 4 animal species known to engage in prostitution:
1. Penguins
Penguins use stones for building their nests. Based on a 1998 study reported on the BBC, a shortage of stones led female Adélie penguins to trade sex for stones. Some pair-bonded female penguins copulate with males who are not their mates and they pay them with pebbles for their own nests.
2. Chimpanzees
A study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany used chimpanzees to investigate the supposed meat-for-sex behaviour of early humans.
Researchers observed chimpanzees in the Taï National Park and concluded that a form of prostitution exists among the chimpanzees in which females offer sex to males in exchange for meat.
According to Cristina Gomes of the Institute, the study “strongly suggests that wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex, and do so on a long-term basis”.
3. Capuchin monkeys
Capuchin monkeys at the Yale–New Haven Hospital were trained to use silver discs as money in order to study their economic behavior.
The discs could be exchanged by the monkeys for various treats. During one chaotic incident, a researcher observed what appeared to be a monkey exchanging a disc for sex. The monkey that was paid for sex immediately traded the silver disc for a grape.
The researcher then took steps to prevent any possibility of coins being traded for sex after his suspicions were aroused.
4. Humans
In no other species has the act of prostitution been observed as explicitly as it has in humans.
Despite societal and sometimes legal opposition, the human commercial sex industry has ever continued to boom.
Intresting.