Frakking in the fog

On February 20, Monday, Chennai was blanketed with a heavy fog that appeared out of nowhere during its early hours. Visibility was reduced to some 20 metres and the sun was completely blocked out. I'm inclined to blame global warming for this occurrence, although I don't know how I could go about proving my point. It definitely wasn't a smog because it didn't look polluted; moreover, if it had been a smog, it should have appeared earlier, too, especially during the post-monsoon and winter seasons.

That's not my point. My point here is to speculate on something a friend of mine, N, claimed to have seen through the fog on her way to college from home: a more than frequent incidence of copulating dogs and pigs, especially the latter. What was it about the sudden change in the weather that could have caused this?

[caption id="attachment_21651" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="Dogs frakking on a beach"][/caption]

I'm torn between two possibilities. The first is that this phenomenon could've easily been a coincidence. Those dogs and pigs might've done it anyway because the reproductive cycle for female dogs lasts about 6 months each time. Each cycle has four stages: proestrus, estrus, diestrus and anestrus. The second one, estrus, lasts about 12 days and is when copulation occurs. If the animal is sexually active for 12 days in six months, and has an attracted male around her, things are going to happen fog or no fog.

The second possibility - which, again, I have no way to explore - is that the fog might've acted like a curtain that the animals could've drawn about themselves to do their private business. Usually, dogs are more likely to "do it" in relatively secluded areas like parks and infrequently used roads, and during those times of day when coitus interruptus is less likely to occur. The fog just could have been the perfect proxy.

I'm not convinced by the second reason because, well, the first reason seems more convincing and actually overwhelms the argument of the second. At the same time, if estrus and the fog coincided, then copulating activity could've been heightened for that Monday alone. How unfortunate that someone didn't go around the city looking for all those frakking in the fog, and how lucky I am to have a friend like N.