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"