Megan's Nature Nook
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With Valentine’s Day upon us, the topic of love in the animal world and mating rituals seemed appropriate. Human mating rituals include activities from offering food, to giving gifts, and even dancing. Animals have similar rituals, but there are some species who take it a step farther and have very interesting and odd rituals! We'll start with some cute ways animals show love and we’ll work our way to the very odd and crazy ones! Let’s start with some birds and their cute and loving rituals. Bowerbirds Bowerbirds are found in Australia and PauPau New Guinea. Males build twig structures called bowers to attract females. They decorate the bowers with natural and manmade material and have an affinity to blue items. The males will dance near his bower and show females his colorful objects to woo her. There is some research showing that he will try to trick her with optical illusions, placing larger objects farther away and smaller ones up close to make himself appear larger with the optical illusion. Dancing Birds There are many birds that dance to attract their mates, some well known dancing species are Sage Grouse, Prairie Chickens, Grebes, Sandhill Cranes, and Hummingbirds.
Prairie Vole Prairie Voles are monogamous and affectionate mammals. They can sense when their partner is stressed and gives the equivalent of hugs and kisses to make them feel better. They take their relationship seriously and will run off other Prairie Voles. Researchers tested their fidelity while under the influence and females stuck with their mate while males were more likely to wander from their mate when drunk. I’m not sure why they tested this theory or how the intoxicated these little voles, but maybe animals aren’t that different than people... Adelie Penguin Adelie Penguins make their nests out of rocks. Males will look on rocky beaches for smooth, shiny pebbles to bring to females. If she likes the pebble, she’ll use it to line her nest and mate with the male. If the males wanders off, the female will mate with other males who bring pebbles she likes. Here is where the cute rituals start to turn weird and a little morbid... Nursery Web Spider Males bring food wrapped in silk to the female to request to mate. It sounds like a nice gift, but the male may trick the female. He may eat the food but leave the exoskeleton and wrap it up or even wrap up a stick instead of food to trick her. The female is not happy when she finds out she has been tricked! North American Porcupine Females have a very short mating window of only 8 – 12 hours once a year! To woo a female, males will climb a tree and pee on her, from up to seven feet away! If she likes how it smells she will mate with him until he tires out. Despite their short mating window, they are successful 90% of the time. I work with porcupines and I can tell you they don’t smell very good, so female porcupines must have a different sense of what a nice cologne smells like! Fireflies With most firefly species, only the male will blink to attract females. Each species has its own blinking pattern to attract mates of its own kind. There is one species where the female will mimic blinks of other species to lure them in and then eats them! That’s one way to take out the competition! Praying Mantis Males are lured to the female by pheromones. If she like the male she will mate with him, but if she doesn’t, she’ll bite his head off! During mating season, males can make up 60% of the female’s diet. Females that eat males lay more eggs. Last but not least the Angler Fish! This “love” is quite intense, the poetic phrase of “and two shall become one” has a whole new meaning with these fish! Angler Fish Angler fish live in the dark depths of the ocean where it can be hard to find a mate. When a male finds a female, he will bite her to attach himself to her and lives as a parasite on her body. Over time the male becomes absorbed into the female, even sharing a circulatory system. All that remains of the male is the gonads that the females uses for reproduction when she’s ready. More than one male can be attached to a female at a time! Well, there you have it. Love comes in many different shapes and sizes. It varies from gift giving and wooing, to food and consumption – each species having their own unique spin on things. This Valentine’s Day you can woo your loved one with some interesting animal love facts! And maybe a box of chocolates, too. P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me by reading and sharing blog posts and subscribing to my e-mail list! This is the 100th blog post that I've written and your support is greatly appreciated!
1 Comment
Mary
2/14/2023 07:43:05 am
This was fun read! Thanks, Megan! And Happy Valentine’s Day.
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