Sexual coercion among animals is the use of violence, threats, harassment, and other tactics to help them forcefully copulate.[1] Such behavior has been compared to sexual assault, including rape, among humans.[2]
In nature, males and females usually differ in reproductive fitness optima.[3] Males generally prefer to maximize their number of offspring, and therefore their number of mates; females, on the other hand, tend to care more for their offspring and have fewer mates.[4] Because of this, there are generally more males available to mate at a given time, making females a limited resource.[4][5] This leads males to evolve aggressive mating behaviors which can help them acquire mates.[5]
Sexual coercion has been observed in many clades, including mammals, birds, insects, and fish.[6] While sexual coercion does help increase male fitness, it is very often costly to females.[5] Sexual coercion has been observed to have consequences, such as intersexual coevolution, speciation, and sexual dimorphism.[4][7]