Exhibitionist spiny anteater reveals bizarre penis - New Scientist Environment

Science can be funny.

New Scientist Environment:

The spiny anteater ... is notoriously difficult to observe in the wild and shows little enthusiasm for breeding in captivity...

Four-headed phallus

Then Steve Johnston of the University of Queensland in Gatton, Australia, and his colleagues inherited a male spiny anteater that ... had been ‘retired’ from a zoo as it produced an erection when being handled at public viewing sessions.

This reminds me of a Panda exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo in the late 80s. We were ushered into the viewing gallery in groups, at regular intervals. There we stood gazing in reverent silence upon an artificial bamboo forest -- a quiet, still forest, in the midst of which lay an inert black and white lump.

Minutes passed. The lump stirred. The crowd gasped.

The lump rolled over. The crowd went "Aahhhwww," and broke into applause.

They seemed not to care that they were now facing a leering, semi-conscious panda, sprawled on its back, legs spread wide like a drunken flasher.

Er, anyway... when doing science, one must be careful with electricity:

The spiny anteater's four-headed phallus had been puzzling scientists. "When we tried to collect semen by [electrically-stimulated ejaculation] before, not only did we not get a single drop, but the whole penis swelled up to a four-headed monster that wouldn't fit the female reproductive tract..."