• Question: which animal has the biggest testicals?

    Asked by fred4 to Edd on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi Fred – a great question!

      In a relative sense it is actually a cricket whose testicles make up 14% of its total body weight:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11718029

      In overall size though the testes of the right whale (a type of whale) are likely to be the largest of any animal, each weighing around 500 kg (about the same as 10 teenagers!)

      There is an inetresting relationship between testicle size and mating behaviour though. Animals where the females mate with lots of males tend to have large testicles while animals that are much less promiscuous have smaller testicles.

      For example, the gorilla has tiny testicles but they live in family groups with one male so that there is no competition for mates. Chimps on the other hand have much bigger testicles (even though they are much smaller animals) because they live in large groups with lots of competition for mates. Humans are somewhere inbetween chimps and gorillas!

      We had another post about this here: http://ias.im/57.1295

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