Rape is a legal term, forced mating is what you call it and it’s the same. Just like animals can be bullies , animals can “rape”, See below:
It varies considerably by species. In some species, males will forcefully copulate with any female they want, whether or not she objects. In these species, the females are often left with physical injuries, and I cannot believe that they do not also suffer considerable mental trauma from this treatment. For example, roosters (male chickens) are well known to force themselves viciously upon hens. They are bigger than the hens, and have sharp spurs which they do not hesitate to use. The roosters are especially apt to force themselves upon the low-ranking hens, the ones at the “bottom of the pecking order”. Sometimes a rooster will mount some poor hen several times in a single day, and in the process will peck her and slash her and leave her bleeding and bedraggled, with some of her feathers torn off. In a large flock with multiple roosters, the roosters will sometimes gang-rape an unfortunate hen and this often leads to that hen’s death.
In other species, females can easily defend themselves and will only copulate with males that they choose. Horses are a good example here. A male horse cannot mount a female without her consent, because when he gets up on her back his balls are hanging down right where she can easily kick them. A mare will not hesitate to kick a stallion who tries anything without getting her permission first, and her kick is strong enough to knock down a barn door! In the wild, mares will gather into harems led by a stallion, but they do this of their own free will. If a mare decides to leave her stallion and go off with another one, the guy she ditched cannot do much about it except to maybe challenge the other stallion. The two males might have an epic battle, but in the end it’s the mare’s choice who she wants to be with. Mares in the wild have even been observed sneaking away from their stallion in the middle of the night and trotting over to have a shag with a different stallion they fancy, and then sneaking back before their guy wakes up.
Of course, in every species, there are considerable variations in personality and social status. Some animals are bullies, and are more apt to dominate others. Some animals are meek, and let themselves be dominated. And others are polite, and keep themselves to themselves unless invited.
Sex among animals in the wild is often antagonistic. This is because animals’ sexual interests conflict. In many species, the interests of males are different from those of females. An explanation that has been provided for this is that, in general, males prefer to maximize their number of...
www.animal-ethics.org