There’s even a term for it, Davian behavior, coined by Robert Dickerman—known as the biologist who gave necrophilia a good name. Dickerman speculated that the “lordosis” posture of a dead ground squirrel, with back arched downward, might release the copulatory drive in a sexually aroused male. And indeed, when biologist David Ainley conducted an experiment on Adélies with a dead female penguin frozen into position, he noted that older males found the female corpse irresistible.
