Animals have all manner of strange and surprising mating rituals – here are some of the most bizarre.
Capuchin monkeys
Male Capuchin monkeys urinate in their hands before rubbing the liquid all over their body, like a primitive form of aftershave.
Scientists, who have been baffled by the behaviour for years, now believe the smell is attractive to females, conveying the monkey’s social or sexual status.
Anglerfish
Male anglerfish are poorly equipped for survival. Not only are they much smaller than females and worse hunters, many find their digestive system becomes stunted as they develop, preventing them from feeding.
They survive by finding themselves a female and biting her, in the process releasing an enzyme that fuses their bodies together. The male then slowly wastes away until nothing is left but its testicles, which periodically release sperm whenever the female is fertile.
Hippopotamus
Thanks to Messrs Flanders and Swann it is commonly held that, for a hippopotamus at least, there is nothing quite like “mud, mud, glorious mud.”
Except for faeces, it would appear. Because the most sure-fire way for a male hippo to attract a mate is to stand atop an enormous pile of fresh dung and use his tail to spray it in all directions.
Red-sided Garter Snake
As the weather turns cold and the hibernation season begins, these snakes have developed an ingenious method of keeping warm – they gather in groups of thousands and share body heat.
Males tend to awaken first but stay nearby, meaning that when females finally emerge they can suddenly find themselves the target of hundreds of males, resulting in “mating balls” of up to 25 at a time.
White-fronted Parrots
When these birds prepare to mate they cuddle up close and lock beaks in a behaviour similar to kissing in humans.
Where they differ from our species is that in between kissing and mating is an intermediate stage of the ritual – vomiting over one another.
Porcupines
Like Capuchin monkeys porcupines have a mating ritual involving urine, but rather than use it on themselves the males prefer to cover their partner with it.
Rather than getting up close to their partner they shoot a stream of urine from up to six feet away – hardly surprising given the huge spikes on their partner’s backs.
Manakin
In a remarkable pre-mating dance that has been compared to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, the male Manakin will leap forward before gliding backwards again with a series of tiny steps reminiscent of the King of Pop.
While doing so they raise their tail and beat their wings against their sides to tell their partner they are ready to mate.
Read more at The Telegraph
They survive by finding themselves a female and biting her, in the process releasing an enzyme that fuses their bodies together. The male then slowly wastes away until nothing is left but its testicles, which periodically release sperm whenever the female is fertile.
Hippopotamus
Thanks to Messrs Flanders and Swann it is commonly held that, for a hippopotamus at least, there is nothing quite like “mud, mud, glorious mud.”
Except for faeces, it would appear. Because the most sure-fire way for a male hippo to attract a mate is to stand atop an enormous pile of fresh dung and use his tail to spray it in all directions.
Red-sided Garter Snake
As the weather turns cold and the hibernation season begins, these snakes have developed an ingenious method of keeping warm – they gather in groups of thousands and share body heat.
Males tend to awaken first but stay nearby, meaning that when females finally emerge they can suddenly find themselves the target of hundreds of males, resulting in “mating balls” of up to 25 at a time.
White-fronted Parrots
When these birds prepare to mate they cuddle up close and lock beaks in a behaviour similar to kissing in humans.
Where they differ from our species is that in between kissing and mating is an intermediate stage of the ritual – vomiting over one another.
Porcupines
Like Capuchin monkeys porcupines have a mating ritual involving urine, but rather than use it on themselves the males prefer to cover their partner with it.
Rather than getting up close to their partner they shoot a stream of urine from up to six feet away – hardly surprising given the huge spikes on their partner’s backs.
Manakin
In a remarkable pre-mating dance that has been compared to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, the male Manakin will leap forward before gliding backwards again with a series of tiny steps reminiscent of the King of Pop.
While doing so they raise their tail and beat their wings against their sides to tell their partner they are ready to mate.
Read more at The Telegraph
No comments:
Post a Comment