How does sexual motivation differ for lower and higher animals?

are you talking about women and men…

Is this supposed to be for a paper or just a short answer will do?

I will help you research on this question and not give you a detailed answer. Basically, you have to define what lower and higher animals are.

Lower animals could be anything besides human. Or you can also define lower animals to be anything invertebrate, while higher animals could be anything that have more complex intelligence such as mammals, reptiles etc. There will be differences in those two so go pick your definition.

Next, research on their sexual motivation online. If you want to keep it simple, you will find that lower animals have sex due to their biological need to proliferate, for survival and preservation of their species. When they are in the proper habitat, they will proliferate in vast numbers. You can use parasites and insects in this example.

Higher animals have a more complex sexual motivation. Besides making babies (and preserving the species), when they smell pheromones or see certain appearances or behaviors, they will be stimulated to mate regardless of the need to procreate, and also just for pleasure. Ex. Human males and their affinity for pornographic images, women in short skirts, big breasts, etc. Certain birds display bright feathers in order to attract a female mate. Other animals have their men fighting over their females and these behaviors attract/stimulate the females to engage in sex with the strong male. This is all assuming, of course, that the women are producing eggs on time (seasonally or through their cycles) and exhibit their own biological behaviors to attract their mates. Engaging in sex itself is affected by other factors.

Factors to engage in sex are: the right mood, right lighting (candle lights), right bed, right place (like at a resort), or the right food (aphrodisiacs, chocolate and wine), right frame of mind, right movie (something sexual), right music (Kenny G), right time (night time), right mating calls (sometimes involves cussing.. hehe), right smell (that AXE commercial)… Etcetera. I’m sure I probably missed a few.

In my opinion, lower animals have a practical excuse for having sex. Humans don’t necessarily have to have one.

Humans have sex influenced by peer pressure, “love”, relationships, expectations of society (being a virgin at 40 is not acceptable), and other excuses. Then when the female gets pregnant (which is considered a success in most animals), she aborts it because she doesn’t want to be a mommy yet. Oh well. What a disgrace to evolution.

Hope you find your answer online thanks to my unbiased opinion of sexual motivation.