Animal Courtships: Our Favorite Reads
Having trouble landing a date? Take some tips from the animal kingdom. In these stories, meet the peacock spider that shakes its electric-blue butt to Beyoncé, the squid that puts on a seductive color show, and the fish whose guttural mating call can wake up a city. Disco-Dancing Peacock Spiders Are Impossible to Resist By Eric Grundhauser Peacock spiders are particularly great dancers, shaking and shimmying their colorful abdomens to woo over mates. To get the full effect, watch these videos of peacock spiders throwing around their electric-blue behinds to songs including “Stayin’ Alive” and “Single Ladies.” In the World of Animal Courtship, These Males Go to Extremes By Ashley Stimpson When it comes to love in the animal kingdom, some males are willing to go to extremes to get the girl. From a bat’s use of urine-based perfumes to a bellbird with the loudest call ever documented, these guys will do just about anything to attract a mate. This Bird’s Mating Dance Is Full of Stomp and Pomp By Gemma Tarlach Argus pheasants know how to clean up and put on a show. Before starting their flashy mating dance, these birds clear away the rocks and branches off their soon-to-be stage, then proceed to shimmy their polka-dot plumage. The Weird and Wonderful World of Sex Under the Sea By Roxanne Hoorn The sea is full of fascinating ways to attract a mate. Some species of squids put on colorful shows, using their color-changing abilities to make elaborate flashing patterns on their flesh. Other species prefer deception, impersonating the opposite sex before sneaking in to steal a mate. Could Fish Sex Be Keeping Floridians Up at Night? By Roxanne Hoorn This fish’s epic, city-shaking mating calls have been mistaken for nightclubs, airplanes, and construction. To produce its bumping-bass beat, the black drum fish flexes its muscles against its swim bladder. The result is a deep, rhythmic sound that moves through the water to far off females—and occasionally waking people across coastal communities.
Having trouble landing a date? Take some tips from the animal kingdom. In these stories, meet the peacock spider that shakes its electric-blue butt to Beyoncé, the squid that puts on a seductive color show, and the fish whose guttural mating call can wake up a city.
Disco-Dancing Peacock Spiders Are Impossible to Resist
By Eric Grundhauser
Peacock spiders are particularly great dancers, shaking and shimmying their colorful abdomens to woo over mates. To get the full effect, watch these videos of peacock spiders throwing around their electric-blue behinds to songs including “Stayin’ Alive” and “Single Ladies.”
In the World of Animal Courtship, These Males Go to Extremes
By Ashley Stimpson
When it comes to love in the animal kingdom, some males are willing to go to extremes to get the girl. From a bat’s use of urine-based perfumes to a bellbird with the loudest call ever documented, these guys will do just about anything to attract a mate.
This Bird’s Mating Dance Is Full of Stomp and Pomp
By Gemma Tarlach
Argus pheasants know how to clean up and put on a show. Before starting their flashy mating dance, these birds clear away the rocks and branches off their soon-to-be stage, then proceed to shimmy their polka-dot plumage.
The Weird and Wonderful World of Sex Under the Sea
By Roxanne Hoorn
The sea is full of fascinating ways to attract a mate. Some species of squids put on colorful shows, using their color-changing abilities to make elaborate flashing patterns on their flesh. Other species prefer deception, impersonating the opposite sex before sneaking in to steal a mate.
Could Fish Sex Be Keeping Floridians Up at Night?
By Roxanne Hoorn
This fish’s epic, city-shaking mating calls have been mistaken for nightclubs, airplanes, and construction. To produce its bumping-bass beat, the black drum fish flexes its muscles against its swim bladder. The result is a deep, rhythmic sound that moves through the water to far off females—and occasionally waking people across coastal communities.
