Sparkling,
original gifts tailored to preferences of a unique individual, amazing
apartments… Is this something along the lines of “What to do to win the love of
your life?”. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Now
I have a surprise for you! It’s all
about... animal courtship!
I have some interesting facts for you.
The male of the European spider Pisaura mirablilis has to show that it is better than its opponents. It wants to please its partner by bringing it an engagement gift. When it catches a fly, it wraps it up with its own thread and gives it to the female. Which one of you doesn’t dream of a partner who will give you delicacies like that?
I have some interesting facts for you.
The male of the European spider Pisaura mirablilis has to show that it is better than its opponents. It wants to please its partner by bringing it an engagement gift. When it catches a fly, it wraps it up with its own thread and gives it to the female. Which one of you doesn’t dream of a partner who will give you delicacies like that?
The
females know that the more food they have, the stronger their children will be.
Another
interesting animal is the Gray Tern. It is a bird of Arctic tundra. These are
very aggressive and beautiful animals. Also in this case we can say that “the
way to a female’s heart is through her stomach”. Their history usually begins
during the breeding season. The males fly high, making circles in the air. The
females know they are looking for a wife. Instead of the first date, the male
offers his dream female… fresh fish! However, the male will not give the fish
until it is sure it is the only one. Then its
trial period begins. It must show its partner that it cares
about it and… bring it a lot of food every day! The female must be sure that when it takes
care of its chick, the male will feed it.
A Fish
(Nurse) from the Lake Malawi lives at the sandy bottom,
where it defends its territory. Gentlemen dressed in blue
suits build distinctive mounds inside their territory. By moving sand in their
mouths, they form a volcano (up to 50 cm in diameter). Males care about the
aesthetics and details of these underwater apartments, fearing that the skilled
eye of the female will spot imperfections and then another gentleman will win
the selection. It looks quite extraordinary. There are many mounds in short
distance from one another. It looks like a market, and at one such market there
can be up to fifty partners who are looking for ladies. When a female visits a
male in his mound, she approaches him and presents her beautiful colors on the
side. When both the admirer and his mound are approved by the female,
it enters its apartment and lays the eggs.
Ptilonorhynchidae is a family of birds that are
considered to be one of the most unusual birds in Australia and New Guinea. Due
to the fact that predatory mammals of these regions mainly prey on animals at
night, male birds build houses for their females during the day. They are
ingenious and build corridors and alleys from twigs. Fruit gardens are also the
norm! Moreover, males decorate the gazebos with various shining objects, and
finally paint them with colorful berry fruit.
Some species even construct big palaces for their princesses! In these buildings, there are even separate rooms connected by corridors. Males prepare feasts of fruit for their mates!
Males are aware of the competition, so they often sneak building materials and tinsel from one another. Ladies are privileged in this situation, because all they need to do is wait and watch what each male has to offer. These birds are extraordinary engineers!
Some species even construct big palaces for their princesses! In these buildings, there are even separate rooms connected by corridors. Males prepare feasts of fruit for their mates!
Males are aware of the competition, so they often sneak building materials and tinsel from one another. Ladies are privileged in this situation, because all they need to do is wait and watch what each male has to offer. These birds are extraordinary engineers!
Sources:www.crazynauka.pl
Comments
Gifts, dances, spending all life together, making 'home', taking care of children - animals truly are amazing.
Recently I've seen one of those programs, it was about raising children - you'd be surprised how many species are raising children together! Mostly it is because of food (it is easier to gather food and take care of children if there are more than one parent), safety.
I enjoyed your article - beautiful pictures (except one with spider ;)
I certainly wouldn't say no to a feast of fruits! :) In my next life I want to be a female bowerbird.
There are also quite a few examples of touching monogamous partnership behaviors in animals. Bald eagles have a mate partner for life. Even though they spend winter alone they reunite with the same partner during each breeding season. Grey wolves alphas are also mainly monogamous.
I find dancing seduction techniques particularly entertaining, like a popular "Moonwalk" dance by a red-capped manakin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o42C6ajjqWg
or this poor spider dancing a dramatic tango to save his life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbScg3r1oQ&feature=youtu.be&t=1m20s
Unfortunately, it might not be liked by feminists, since it clearly shows that males work hard for their families and females just watch and criticize.
Jokes asides, let's hope men will never stop to try to make their ladies happy :)
I find the idea of speciesism truly sickening, still I understand that this way of thinking is just another manifestation of us being animals. There are just to many examples of identical activities we share with other species. For example a subspecies of common chimpanzee use spears while hunting and perform a ceremonial dance after crossing waterfalls. Termite mounds can stand and still be inhabited for as long as 2200 years, which is pretty impressive, considering there might not have been a single hut in an area which constitutes Warsaw that long ago. Weirdly there are cases of zoophilia as well, where a bonobo female was caught masturbating to pornographic magazine. To summarize, of course we are different but it doesn't mean that we are better.
Interesting video related to the issue of speciesism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqT82oGeax0
In my opinion there is nothing strange about it. The most interesting part for me was that about Gray Tern. It is so cute that male give dream female a gift - fresh fish! The funniest part was that when you said *the way to a female’s heart is through her stomach* it is similar behavior to humans. Sometimes people really are like animals... Or maybe the animals are like humans?! For me your article is very interesting. Congratulations interesting article. Great job!
Great example would be Peacock spiders which through dance and colorful abdomen try to impress female counterparts to mate with them. If we were more open on exploring what's foreign for us , in looking under what on the outside we could find that animal world in many ways surpass our technological advancement not in sheer technology but in harmony which we lack as individual pack of career starving humans.