Dolphin Sex... That's Not His Hand!

A pair of dolphins mating, while a friend swims nearby without a hint of embarrassment

Jen & I just returned from a road trip south of Cancun. Among our stops was a visit to Dolphin Discovery. While Jen was swimming with the dolphins, I was videotaping the festivities and watching a trainer teach a youngster to fetch balls and hoops.

Jen & I both learned all sorts of interesting facts about these amazing creatures. But I just found some interesting facts (here) that they neglected to cover!

"Here's something you probably don't know about Flipper: he has retractable penis. And if that's not cool enough, here's something else: his penis is prehensile. And it swivels. In fact, a male dolphin can use his penis to explore objects just like a hand.
Male dolphins also have a very strong sex drive. It can mate many, many times in a day. Now here's the bad news: a male dolphin isn't that much of a stud. The average time to ejaculation? 12 seconds.
Another hushed-up fact is that male dolphins have a ravenous sexual appetite: they often try to hump inanimate objects and even other animals like sea turtles. When a pack of male dolphins happen upon a female, often times they will attempt to force her to mate."

Sorry if I've tainted anyone's love for these animals. I still think they're amazing. But I won't be dressing as a female dolphin for Halloween...