Ken

A few years ago I heard that the penises of stray cats were tending to become more recessed into the cats' bodies, thereby fooling animal control workers into thinking the cats had already been neutered. Does anyone have any further information on this, or is it an urban legend?

Brian_Boru

Sounds like an urban legend, although I've never heard it before. Male cats already have what you might call "recessed penises", when they aren't in use (sexually or during cleaning) they are quite hidden. To truly fool a trained animal control worker the male cat's testes would have to be recessed.

Ken

Thanks, Brian. If I'd thought about it, I would have said "testes" instead of "penises".

I could kick myself for mentioning this story to a creationist before checking my sources--I'm always irritated when others pass on urban legends without verifying them, and now I've done the same thing, losing credibility in the process. Oh well.

doghouse

I'm not aware of any evidence of cat's testicles becoming more recessed. I've neutered 100s of cats and haven't noticed any difference over the last 20 years.

Some individual cats will be cryptorchid, where one or both testicles fail to descend into the scrotum (in the embryo, the testicle develops near the kidney, like the ovary). But undescended testicles are usually infertile so I can't see any evolutionary advantage there.

premjan

Do external testicles indicate that cold-bloodedness is better for producing sperm?

butswana

I think I saw a cat choking his chicken when I was younger. He was laying on the couch on his side. He rolled over onto his back. His little pecker was sticking out. He smacked it a few times with his front paws and a small jet of white liquid shot out of it. He rolled onto his side and went back to sleep.

doghouse

It’s true that mammals are the only animals that have external testicles. And mammals are ectothermic and homeothermic. The testicles are several degrees cooler than core body temperature and higher temperatures in the testicles will adversely affect sperm development. And many mammals have a cremaster muscle which serves to draw the testicles closer to the body in a cold environment.

On the other hand birds are also ectothermic and homeothermic yet they have internal testicles.

And a few mammals have internal testicles, for example dolphins and elephants. (If I lived with sharks and tigers I’d want internal testicles too.)

So I don’t know if the temperature theory is true or not. One alternative theory has to do with intra-abdominal pressure associated with running and jumping can be damaging to the testcles.