Animals also engage in sex for reasons other than reproduction.

Sex is pleasurable, but the scientific view views it in an evolutionary context—it is believed to be primarily a way to transmit genetic material into the future. Is this behavior the only form of hedonistic sexual behavior?

Over the past 10-15 years, the scientific community has amassed ample evidence that animals can experience pleasure, as all cats know. Rats love being tickled (they make laughing sounds that are almost inaudible) and, moreover, actively seek out opportunities to experience this sensation. But does all this sexual pleasure matter?

The so-called “hippie monkeys,” bonobos, are known for their homosexual relationships with “mature” and growing members of their species. But you don”t have to be a bonobo to engage in such relationships—capsins are also guilty of this. Three primatologists, Joseph Munson, Susan Perry, and Amy Prish, discovered that females of both monkey species engage in sex even during their menstrual cycle, except when they become pregnant (either during pregnancy or while nursing).

Read also: Couples are having sex less often than 10 years ago

Twenty-five years later, people are having sex less often than in previous decades. At the same time, more than half of women and nearly three out of three men do.

These monkeys are very affectionate. Look what they do while walking.

Friday hyenas perform oral sex, just like goats and sheep. This phenomenon is also common among short-legged Malayan fruit bats. Another striking example is a pair of male brown bears, whose story was published in the journal Zoo Biology. Bears living together in a fenced area near a nature reserve in Croatia realized they had accumulated 28 oral sex sessions over a six-year period.

If pain helps animals learn to avoid risky behavior that could lead to death, then pleasure, therefore, promotes “well-being,” writes Jonathan Balcove. “The drive to achieve this kind of pleasure is a combination of the reproductive instinct and the intense desire to win a biochemical prize. If so, it explains why this powerful drive for pleasure isn”t limited to us humans.”