# Do reptiles have penises? Do birds? Do whales? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2002, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807 "2002-06-07T07:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/21 "2002-06-08T02:39:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sakurako \* > \*\*Do any animals lay eggs… > and then later, the male fertilizes them > after they are already far outside the female’s body? \*\* Many many types of marine invertebrates use this strategy. Coral, crustaceans, etc, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/22 "2002-06-08T05:01:32Z")
Yes, reptiles have penises. They’re just stored internally so you don’t see them much. Snakes, in fact, have _two_ penises–called the “hemipenis.” More accurately, they have a penis shaft that splits into two directions at the end. This is so they may penetrate the female from either side (snakes aren’t big fans of being upside down, so missionary position is out). My corn snake, Henry, recently had a hemipenile tumor removed. I don’t know if that means he’s penis-less or not, but I learned more about snake penile problems than I really needed to know. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/23 "2002-06-08T07:24:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jb\_farley \* > some birds have penises. > [and HOW!](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1023_corkscrewduck.html) What, no picture? _Pout_ (And where can I get a picture of a whale’s penis, anyway? I thought the internet was supposed to have _everything!_) ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/24 "2002-06-08T08:14:49Z")
you want a picture? are you sure you want a picture? if you are a guy (sorry, i have no clue), you might not want a picture. not because of Anatidaeic envy. i am serious. mainly because even a _seventeen inch_ ( **!!!** ) freddy looks pitiful when shriveled and corkscrewed. anyway, okay. you’ve been warned. jb [p.s.- it looks like what i think a gecko tongue looks like](http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_366856.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Rubin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billy_rubin/32/3622_2.png) [@Billy\_Rubin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Rubin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/25 "2002-06-08T12:35:02Z")
Great link, Farley. I especially like > [@](#): > > stiff competition by drakes it’s priceless! I have never seen a Gecko tongue. If it looks like that, I don’t think I want to. b. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/26 "2002-06-09T06:45:04Z")
Looks like a really tenacious bowel movement. 😉 And getting that in the female must be an all-day affair. 😃 Now where’s that whale penis pic??? ---
**Author:** ![USNSPARKS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9fc348/32.png) [@USNSPARKS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USNSPARKS)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/27 "2002-06-09T10:00:24Z")
Here’s one of an Oklahoma tree frog doing it’s thing as it were. [http://www.fazed.net/humor/images/](http://www.fazed.net/humor/images/) Once there scroll down on left to Treefrog.jpg. Place has a BUNCH of pretty hilarious pictures. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/28 "2002-06-09T18:26:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\* > [sub]Trivia Note: The Sperm Whale is so called because early whalers thought all the white gooey stuff in its head was sperm (it isn’t).[/sub] \*\* Could you provide a cite? I always assumed that the names occured the other way round. Some scientist views sperm cells for the first time and names them due to their resembance to a certain whale. ``` Then again, Melville gives the full name as Spermaceti whale. Cetus means whale. Which leaves me pondering the meaning of sperm. Which means, Whack may be right and I may have had whales and sperm backwards in my head all these years. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/29 "2002-06-10T17:38:08Z")
**Doc** : The OED backs **Whack-a-Mole** up. The _sperm_ in “spermaceti” means exactly that. The substance primarily obtained from the head of the sperm whale was called spermaceti because the sailors thought it was whale sperm. Additionally, the earliest use of ‘spermaceti’ dates from 1472, almost two hundred years before the invention of the microscope and the first recorded data on the viewing of spermatozoa. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/30 "2002-06-10T21:00:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lisa Ann \* > \*\*We have a ulu from Alaska - the handle is made from a petrified walrus penis bone. \*\* Actually, what you have is an Oosik. An Ulu is a knife where the handle is attached to the back of the blade. Walrus oosiks are about a foot and half long, and about an inch thick. Solid bone. Eskimos used to make clubs out of them. Very powerful items. Wait, I just re-read your post. You are saying you have an ulu MADE from an oosik. Never mind… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/31 "2002-06-10T23:41:03Z")
For me, the alarming statistic wasn’t that the duck’s penis was 17 inches long, but that the **duck itself** is **16** inches long. Wouldn’t this mean that the **female** duck is also 16 inches long?! What the fuck does it do, come out her beak?! ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807/32 "2002-06-11T00:31:31Z")
… well how else is a female duck supposed to brush her teeth? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-reptiles-have-penises-do-birds-do-whales/112807.md?page=1)