Appendix: Masturbation rates across species

Created 23 Dec 2014 • Last modified 12 Jan 2015

In the hopes of shedding a bit more light on the interpretation of masturbation rates, here's a table comparing (solo) masturbation rates across animal species. Frequencies attempt to estimate or bound the median rate across individuals, or bound the individual rates. The table is meant to be sorted by rate. However, the entire table should be considered extremely rough and approximate. The research literature on animal masturbation is sparse, fragmented, and idiosyncratic, so I did my best with the available data. See below for notes, calculations, and citations.

The column n gives the total number of animals whose observations were used to calculate the frequency. In the case of humans, rates were self-reported rather than observed. Of course, this means that deceit is a problem for the human data but not for the animal data.

Species Type n Rate Details
horse male 43 high median 10 times per day
dolphin, baiji male 1 high 9 times per day
donkey male 2 high median 4 times per day
bull male 9 common median once per day
chimpanzee, bonobo male, adolescent 2 common median once per 2 days
chimpanzee, bonobo female 6 common median once per week to once per 2 weeks
human male, age 18–39, US 987 common median a few times per month to once per week
monkey, chacma baboon male 26 low median ≤ once per month
monkey, Japanese macaque male 26 low median ≤ once per month
human female, age 18–39, US 987 low median a few times per year to once per month
bird, boat-tailed grackle male ? rare < once per month in all individuals
monkey, western red colobus female >14 rare < once per 2 months in all but 1 individual
monkey, western red colobus male >5 rare < once per 4 months in all individuals
gibbon (various species) male or female 64 rare seen mostly under unusual rearing conditions
bird, auk, dovekie male or female >58 rare seen in only 1 individual (unknown sex)
chimpanzee, common male 20 rare seen only under unusual rearing conditions

For these species, I have no useful numbers, only researchers' verbal descriptions of rates:

Species Type n Rate
dolphin, bottlenose female ? "frequent"
dolphin, bottlenose male ? "a good deal"
monkey, talapoin male 9 "often"
monkey, talapoin female, juvenile 9 "occasionally"

Gory details

Here, in a pretty rough form, are the notes and calculations I made to produce the table.

References

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Chen, D.-Q., Zhao, Q.-Z., Wang, K.-X., Zhang, X.-F., Wei, Z., Kuang, X.-A., … Wang, D. (2002). Relationships between sexual masturbation behavior and serum testosterone of a captive male baiji. Current Zoology, 48, 611–617. Retrieved from http://www.currentzoology.org/temp/%7B6243E576-7851-4D9D-BB64-5E031956CEB0%7D.pdf

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