Come hither, my precious!!

Note: Images in this article are simply for illustrative purposes and may not be species appropriate.

Courtship in the animal can be enchanting, beautiful, intriguing or just downright funny. Today we explore a couple of the shenanigans that take place as members of nature’s kingdom try to woo each other…

Life, generally, is better with a little mystery. Like the fairy circles in the Namib. But occasionally, the truth turns out to be even more fascinating. In the mid-90s, a pair of local divers off the Amami Oshima Island, southwest Japan, discovered the most beautiful circle on the seabed. About two meters in diameter, it was perfectly geometrical. Like an ephemeral piece of mandala art.

In 2013 Kawase et al. found that these were a nest structure – built by the male, White-spotted pufferfish, Torquigener albomaculosus, which is only approximately 10 cm in length. It is used to attract females. This structure is much more geometrically ordered than any other nest built by fish. The little males darts across the sand, shimmying his fins to create these beautiful patterns in the sand. Much like weavers, the female will show up, inspect the nest and, if found satisfactory, will mate and lay her eggs in the fine sand in the centre of the structure. Watch the video in the info box – it is truly enchanting.

The Antarctic with its icy landscape is as much a desert as the Sahara, in that there are no twigs, leaves or other nesting materials. So, the gentoo penguins build their nests from pebbles. When they find what they consider to be a good stone, they carry it to their partner. It is considered a gift which acknowledges the bond between the two birds – whilst at the same time being a practical gift as it contributes to nest building efforts. It is of paramount importance to keep the eggs and/or chicks dry – so stones make the perfect nesting material as the snow and ice melt through them, keeping everything dry.

Gentoos are monogamous, and mate for life. As the winter approaches, a young male will present a single female with what he considers to be the most beautiful stone around. If she isn’t single, all hell breaks loose (aren’t they just so similar to humans??) and the offending male is banished from the colony. If the female is impressed, she too will find a stone and present it to the male. And so it begins, the back and forth of building a nest based on penguin love. Isn’t that romantic?

Most snails are hermaphrodites – i.e. they have both male and female breeding parts. In mating season, it is better to be the father than the mother (it is way less energy-intensive) as your genes get passed on with half the effort. Enter the “love dart”. When two snails meet, and tis the season for love, they engage in a “mating dance” that lasts for hours. What is really happening is that each snail is attempting to manoeuvre into position to fire its dart into the other. Why? The mucus injected by the love dart contains chemicals that increase the chances of the shooter snail becoming a father! It is fired into the side of its mate, piercing its body wall. The dart is a sharp stylet of calcium carbonate. Who knew snails had such an intriguing love life?? There is a detailed account in the video below.

Serenading has always been part of human courtship. Whilst some may say those days are gone, I’ll quietly whisper “pop music”. Have you ever wondered about the percentage of songs that are about love, lost love, unrequited love, forbidden live – the list is endless. But I digress. Mice. They sing. Love songs.

Mice use ultrasonic vocalizations (which are beyond the range of human hearing) for various purposes – including courtship. The males sing quite complex songs to attract females, and the females respond – creating a beautiful duet. In the info block below there is a recording of Wild Deer Mouse singing. To me it sounds almost like the songs of whales – or perhaps even a wolf…

I think the behaviour I found most amusing was the anecdote on the lengths some female dragonflies will go to avoid mating. They actually fake their own deaths. How positively disturbing for the males! When pursued by particularly aggressive males, the female moorland hawker dragonfly freezes mid-air. She then goes crashing to the ground andpretends to be dead. There is a good reason for this – check out the video in the info box!

Twerk or die! Twerk or be eaten. Or twerk as though your life depends on it. There are so many different amusing headings you could write for this one… All at the expense of the male button spider. There’s no shamming here – they really do die. Well, in some species. Of the 31 widow spider species, only one or two actually eat the males. Why? Because she can. Or perhaps because she can’t help herself. Protein is protein and a gal must eat! The jury is out – you decide after watching the video… 

I make light of these discoveries – and that’s ok. It’s good to revel in the world we live in and find the humour. The reality though is that we are making the most phenomenal discoveries about nature. We truly have no idea where this is all going, and just how much is left to discover (I would imagine that it is almost unlimited). This planet we live on is magical in the extreme – which is why we should really do our bit to protect it as much as we can.

Jacqui Ikin & The Cross Country Team

INFO BOX:

Pufferfish Builds Sand Sculpture for Mating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k0MMxhOVpA

Gentoo Penguins Build Love Nests!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5QZz6KksvE

Meet the snails that don’t need Cupid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBrZ5iyz_rg

A really interesting article explaining the intricacies of snails’ love darts:
https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcseriesblog/2016/05/13/love-dart-heart-sexual-conflict-snails/

How singing mice woo their mates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkgxLEHeZHI

Wild Deer Mouse “Singing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzAn8fyQ418

Why Female Dragonflies Fake Death (amusing conversation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCs9dxopeR4

Why the Male Black Widow is a Real Home Wrecker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpJNeGqExrc&t=3s