The #MeToo social movement has gained international attention over raising awareness against sexual abuse and publicizing sex crimes and harassment. As it turns out, females fighting back when facing injustice isn’t exclusive to humans. In fact, recent studies show that certain animals also have their own ways of retaliating when ill-treated.
Yes, nature has its very own #MeToo movement, and the hummingbirds and octopuses show us how it’s done in the wild.
#MeToo: Female Hummingbirds Take What’s Theirs
First, let’s talk about hummingbirds, particularly the white-necked jacobin hummingbirds (Florisuga mellivora). The male birds of this species have blue-colored heads and throats, while female ones have more muted hues – olive-green heads and backs, with spotted throats. On the other hand, some females also have blue coloring, and they often use it in their #MeToo movement.
According to a study published in Current Biology, researchers found that female birds display their blue coloring. Though birds often show their colorful features during mating season to attract those of the opposite sex, the study found that procreation isn’t their motivation. In fact, males don’t seem to prefer blue-colored female birds.
University of Washington evolutionary biologist Jay Falk who led the study, said mating choices don’t exclusively determine animals’ looks. Falk’s team released over 400 birds in Panama and used genetics to know their sex to conduct the study.
To make the research even more interesting, the researchers placed green or dull-colored dummies on feeders. According to the results of the study, males attempted to mate with the dummies, mistaking them for live female birds.
Falk described male jacobins as the” show-off jocks of the hummingbird world,” and for a good reason. Aside from attempting to court the dummies, some male birds also attacked the dummies. And when this happened, other species of hummingbirds also followed suit. According to Falk, this only goes to show why female birds wanted to show off their blue color – they want to have as much power as the males.
Female Octopuses Don’t Stand Back
For other animals, it takes a lot more than showing colors to gain a bit of leverage in the struggle for power between genders. Such is the case for female octopuses off the Australian coast. Their #MeToo move? They throw a fit – literally.
University of Sydney scientist Peter Godfrey-Smith and his team filmed Sydney octopuses at a site in Jervis Bay. Some people call the place Octopolis because it’s one of the few locations in the sandy sea bottom where the octopuses can create dens, thus their big population in the area.
According to the study, the females throw shells and silt to target males that harass them. How do they do it? Godfrey-Smith says the females hold algae, silt, or other objects under their bodies with their tentacles. They then angle their siphons and shoot water afterward. As a result, they propel the projectiles in a move akin to throwing.
Godfrey-Smith says octopuses often use this move to excavate dens or to dispose of the remains of meals. In that sense, it was easy to assume that the move was a harmless deed without malice. However, they started to suspect that something was up when they saw that the females hit males.
When they gave it a closer look, they indeed found the difference between throws that clear the den and throws that target others.
In fact, they even caught a female octopus throwing silt ten times at a male that was attempting to mate with her. The female was successful in hitting its target five times. The male tried to duck and avoid the projectile but to no avail.
