Have you ever wondered what kind of bizarre animal mating rituals are in the world?
In the animal kingdom, reproducing isn't always a straight-forward process.
In fact, it can be quite complicated and contested.
For many, it involves an elaborate scheme to find a mate and then lure her into copulating.
And competition abounds.
To seal the deal, many males have to fight with other males, sometimes in a brutal fashion,
to win their mate.
However, in other cases, romantic animal mating rituals exist, much like human romance.
One thing is for sure, it's a strange world out there with millions of animals vying to
carry on their DNA into the next generation.
I'm Mike with List25 and Here are 25 Bizarre Animal Mating Rituals.
25.
Banana Slugs These slimy yellow creatures are hermaphrodites,
meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs, and will both have a reciprocal exchange
of sperm.
When they mate, they strike at each other like a snake and might even bite into each
other's flesh.
It takes hours for them to get into position and even longer for them to finish mating.
Sometimes, they might get stuck attached to one another.
If they can't detach, they'll take turns gnawing off their genitalia and will become female
only.
24.
Honeybees These buzzing insects have one queen that
only mates once in its lifetime.
During its single mating ritual, it flies out into the open until a drone mounts the
queen in mid-air and inserts his endophallus.
More male honeybees will mount the queen afterward.
When a male honeybee is finished, his endophallus is ripped from his body and usually, his abdomen
rips open as well, killing the bee.
If the male honeybee somehow survives the mating ritual, he'll be ejected from the nest
as he has served his purpose.
23.
Brown Antechinus Native to Australia, this little male rodent
practically commits suicide by reproducing.
After preparing to mate, he frantically tries to mate with every female he can during a
3 to 4-week time-period.
The mating itself can last up to 14 hours.
The male becomes so exhausted during this process that his hair falls off, he bleeds
internally, and his immune system shuts down.
When it's all over, he and every other male are dead.
22.
Bonobos A close relative to humans, these primates
are known to be rather promiscuous, copulating with multiple partners and treating mating
as a pleasurable activity, separating it from reproduction only.
Also, unlike many other animals, Bonobos prefer copulating face to face.
21.
Flatworm Much like Banana Snails, these wriggling creatures
of the sea are hermaphrodites, but they have to choose who will be male and female during
mating.
How do they make this choice?
They literally have a competition to see who can stab the other first.
This process can last up to an hour.
20.
Giraffes These long-necked vegetarians first initiate
a mating ritual by something called "Flehmen sequence."
It's when the male rubs against a female's backside until she pees.
The male will then taste the pee to see if she's in heat.
If she is, he'll virtually stalk her until he can mate with her, which involves intense
fighting between necks.
On some occasions, males will also copulate with each other.
19.
Snails These mollusks find each other using a sense
of smell and touch.
Like some other creatures, they're hermaphrodites.
Once they discover a mate, they use their "love darts" to increase the rate of success
of reproducing.
These darts can prove rather dangerous if injected in the wrong place, potentially hitting
a vital organ instead and killing the mate.
18.
Nursery Web Spiders These long-legged arachnids are the gift-giving
type.
When finding a female, the male will provide a gift of a carcass wrapped in silk before
copulating.
Scientists believe it's less a way to woo the female, but rather to avoid being cannibalized.
17.
Prairie Voles In major contrast to many other animal mating
habits, these little rodents show monogamous behavior.
Scientists discovered that when prairie voles mate once, a chemical switches a gene in their
brain that causes them to mate together for life, even sharing the same space, nest building,
and paternal roles.
16.
Cichlid Fish These fish have a strict hierarchy where only
the alpha male procreates.
The other males hang out in the alpha's territory, feeding when they can, and have such a suppressed
reproductive system they virtually pass as females.
When the alpha disappears, another male can quickly take his place, practically rebooting
his reproductive system.
The male will build a nest and lure a female into it by shaking his tail.
She lays her eggs in the nest and he fertilizes them.
15.
Red-Sided Garter Snake In Narcisse, Manitoba, these slithering reptiles
come out of their lairs to mate every year in one giant orgy.
The males come out first, waiting for the females.
When a larger female approaches, the males will create a giant ball, often outnumbering
the female by up to one hundred males.
14.
Spotted Hyena This laughing beast of Africa has a strong
hierarchy tradition with females being both aggressive and the leaders in the pack.
But, even more unusual, the females have an elongated clitoris that they urinate, copulate,
and give birth with.
13.
Birds of Paradise These gorgeous birds of New Guinea are all
unique in their own way with a wonderful array of colors on their feathers.
What's an even more amazing sight is the male mating dance.
They'll hop, shake, strut, and buzz all in an attempt to attract a mate.
12.
Bedbugs These pesky creatures have a rather violent
and disturbing way to reproduce.
The male bedbug mates with the female through "traumatic insemination" by piercing the female
with his hypodermic genitalia.
11.
Hippos These hungry and dangerous mammals of Africa
have a rather dirty and smelly way of attracting a mate.
First, they urinate and defecate on a spot before twirling their tail around to spread
the smell.
The mate is actually attracted by this display and will come over.
Foreplay involves splashing around in the water before they get it on.
10.
Bluegills These male fish have three ways to potentially
mate with a female.
The first is to become big and brawny, protecting their nest which lures females in to spawn.
Another male may follow a female of similar shape and size into a rival male's nest undetected
to fertilize his own eggs.
Then there's the third male who swoops in while a rival male mates with a female and
adds his sperm to the mix.
The territorial male, however, has final say in the whole process because he can smell
his eggs from another and will potentially eat the eggs that aren't his.
9.
Emperor Penguin These waddling birds of the Arctic start mating
in March and April.
They are serially monogamous, taking one mate a year.
Once a female lays an egg, the male will lay on it to incubate while the female goes off
to feed.
Once it hatches, the male feeds the chick with a milky substance from its esophagus.
When the female returns, the male goes to feed and eventually they both take care of
the chick together.
8.
Bowerbirds These fanciful winged creatures of New Guinea
and Australia go to great lengths to attract a mate.
Every kind of Bowerbird, from a great bowerbird to a satin bowerbird, has their own colorful
way of doing it.
Usually, it involves an elaborate display of flowers, plastic toys, and dancing, all
to impress a girl.
7.
Earwigs These omnivorous creatures with giant pincers
are mostly nocturnal with few social behaviors other than mating.
To find a female, they can sense her pheromones she leaves behind in her feces.
Males will fight over who gets to mate with the female, and usually the size of their
body and pincers determines their success.
6.
Sage Grouse In an act you almost have to see to believe,
the Saga Grouse performs a mesmerizing dance to woo potential mates.
They waggle, strut, and fluff their feathers at a certain site called the "lek" while females
gather to watch it happen and see the goods.
5.
Dolphin Male dolphins do a variety of things to attract
a female, some pleasant and others not so much.
They'll sing to a female, bring her gifts, or perform wild acrobatic feats to impress
her.
However, they also have been known to form gangs to capture a female from her pod and
force her into mating.
When they're finished copulating, males will leave the female to raise the young on her
own while they go off to find another mate.
4.
Porcupines With those long, sharp needles sticking out
all over their body, you'd think porcupines wouldn't stand a chance of reproducing, but
they figure it out.
Around September, the female porcupine will secrete mucus and urine to attract males,
letting them know she's ready to copulate.
However, once the first male arrives, she won't be ovulating yet.
He has to wait, giving other males time to arrive.
A vicious battle ensues between the males and the bloodied victor gets the spoils.
When the female is ready, she curves her tail over her back to not impale the male.
She'll also lay the quills flat against her body, keeping him from danger.
3.
Percula Clownfish These little Nemos will spawn all year and
will do dancing rituals such as head standing, touching ventral surfaces, and leaning towards
each other with their dorsal surfaces touching.
What makes them bizarre is that they always start out as males and will change to females
when there aren't any females around.
2.
Whiptail Lizards These lizards are a rare breed.
They technically don't mate at all and are an all-female species.
Obviously, they achieve this through asexual reproduction.
So, their mating ritual is a party of one.
1.
Hooded Seals In an effort to show his manliness, male hooded
seals will puff out a pink balloon-like membrane from its head.
The pink balloon comes out of its nostrils and sits on top of its head.
When two males fight over a female, the one with the larger pink balloon ends up scaring
the other off.
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