Where can I find large and small testicles?

April 7, 2007 1:15 PM

Where can I find data (online) on the average size of common mammalian species' testes?

I'm looking for a variety of common mammalian species, from gorilla to the average ground squirrel. I'm not looking for any specific mammal, although a large variety of "common" (house cat, dogs, cows, humans, rats, etc.) ones would be great. I'm also not looking for anecdotal "data" (i.e. "The blue whale's penis the size of a Volkswagen!") - just a basic list.
Now I realize this might not be readily available data - I'm willing to compile it. Alternately, if there's some site that has some averaged data on a variety of mammals, (height, weight, testes size...you know, common facts) that would be great too.

posted by itchi23 to science & nature (5 comments total)

By volume or mass?
posted by phrontist at 1:47 PM on April 7, 2007

Volume...probably. I'm taking the spherical object and translating it to graphically represent differences in species in two-dimensions, so if radial dimensions are available, that would be fantastic.

Now, if only mass data is available, I can try to interpolate the mass vs. volume ratio - making the clearly unscientific assumption that the ratio is constant between all species.
posted by itchi23 at 2:07 PM on April 7, 2007

3 pdf pages of testicles
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 2:10 PM on April 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

You just have to know how to ask google: "testes size interspecific".

Also, since testes size correlates with multiple males competing to impregnate a female, googling "sperm competition" probably is useful too: "testes size sperm competition".
posted by orthogonality at 6:23 AM on April 8, 2007

Neuticles, manufacturers of artificial testes for dogs, cats, horses and bulls, associate different sizes of their product with the overall animal weight. This might be useful to you. Unfortunately their site is framed. This Brochure [PDF] has all the info, though.
posted by mumkin at 12:37 PM on November 4, 2007