What are the Strangest Mating Habits in the Animal Kingdom?

when it hits. Right. Yeah, that's right. But the article was about something slightly different. So apparently this researcher published a paper on how just by studying the grunts during a game, you can actually predict which opponent is going to win. And the researcher came up with this massive taxonomy of grunts, and he analyzed the tones and the pitches, and he came up with the system that actually beat

Bookie's best guesses. But what was most interesting was that the researcher published this paper in a journal called Animal Behavior. And you only came to the conclusion because it mimicked what he was studying in Red male deer like the deer actually face off in this grunt match where they bark at each other from a few feet away, and it's what the New York referred to as a volley

of roars. But as one starts becoming more dominant, the others grunts weaken and get thinner, and eventually they lose the match and the opportunity to make that's so funny. So but it works the same way in tennis or what. Yeah, basically, so when the grunting is stronger, you can tell which player is controlling the game. But the whole story made me think, like, why do male dear use grunting at one another is a way to win the maids affections?

And why don't they do dances or something we're creative like build things? And what exactly are the strangest courtship tricks in the animal Kingdom? So let's dive in, say their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius, I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manesh Ticketer. And on the other side of the soundproof glass drafting. What is that a Craigslist at in search of a skydiving partner. That's our friend, the producer, Tristan McNeil.

And if that sounds like a weird way to find a companion, well, I think you're right. It is a weird way. Well, in his defense, Tristan's flann was inspired by the mating habits of bald eagles. So bald eagles actually used a special kind of skydiving when they're testing out potential mates. So first the love birds fly super high, and then they lock their talents together and start tumbling and cartwheeling towards the ground. This is a move that

researchers actually referred to as the death spiral. The death spiral. Yeah, so it gives you an idea of the stakes, and the birds mostly let go before they hit the ground. But the whole thing is a test that the eagles can judge each other's fitness and whether they're good enough for each other to be a match, and if they are, they'll actually mate for life and they won't have to

do this sort of dating technique thing again the next year. Wait, though, I'm back to Tristan, like, is that what he's basing his plan on or what I think? So? And It's why maya motto is always never take dating advice from birds of prey. That's pretty good advice there, Mango. Well, you know, the animal kingdom is full of plenty of other equally dangerous and complex or just downright bizarre mating habits. You know, you think about like the fist pumping fiddler

crabs to the O. C. D. Bower birds. It's it's a wild world out there when it comes to the animal love lives. And so with that in mind, we thought it'd be fond to devote an entire episode to some of the weirdest and most surprising courtships from all kinds of different species. So we'll look at all the biological reasons behind each animal's preferred method of attraction and who knows, maybe we'll pick up a few tips along

the way. Well probably not for these first year, because I thought we could follow Tristan's lead and get some of the scarier mating habits out of the way first. And if you look into it, there are actually a lot of those. So humans have the luxury of thinking of sex and positive and pretty pleasurable terms, but for most other animals, sex is strictly for survival where creating offspring is really the only goal, and many of the

tactics for getting there tend to be pretty unpleasant. So there's this bilogist, Karen Bonder, and this is how she put it. From bugs to mammals and everything in between. The scene is set for violence, conflict, and war. There's no champagne, no roses. So on that note, where do you want to start? Well, I don't know if I want to talk about war, but I do want to start with Arabian camels. Now, these are the one humped camels that you'll find mainly in the deserts of like

the Middle East and in Africa. And while they do have all kinds of cool ways to help their bodies retain water and beat that scorching heat where they live, the males of the species also have this really gross adaptation that they use just to let the lady camels know they're in the mood. So I like the word gross. Go on, Well, it's called a dulla and it's basically

this inflatable air sack in the male camel's throat. So when one of these guys is ready to make they'll puff up a dollar and once it's nice and big. They flop it out of the side of their mouth for all the females to see. How did I not see one of these things before? Until we were doing the research for this episode? Had you seen one before?

And the thing is just nasty, Like, it's pink and slimy and definitely doesn't look like something you'd want hanging out of your boyfriend's mouth on thing, But apparently that's what camels are into. I mean, that does sound disgusting, But is that where it ends? Like, do they just fluff this gross airstack out of the mounds and then just the ladies come running, Well, you'd think, but actually

it's just the beginning. So once they're dollars are inflated, the Arabian camels start gurgling their spit to produce this deep, low mating sound. And this gurgling gets so intense that the camels start foaming at the mouth, which is of course just like that makes their dullars that much grosser. But if that isn't enough to catch a lady camel's eye, the males will then you know, they use use a good trick. They pee on their tails and the wave

them around to spread their pharomones through the air. It's just beautiful. Yeah, I mean, they seem like a bunch of Casanova's. But it does remind me of male hooded seals and how they inflate this special part of their nostrils to attract a mate. So you know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, it's that part of the nasal membrane that's actually called the hood, and that's what gives the seals their names.

And when they blow it up to full size, it looks like a big foot long pink bubble just sticking out of their nose and it is so gross. I mean, it's also amazing that, like so many different species would be attracted to having like giant skin blooms from your face. It's just so weird. But but speaking of things erupting out of faces, that's just apparently what we're doing here today. Have you ever heard of the emay mustache toad? I haven't, but I love this idea of like little toads with

handled bar mustaches. Well that would be much cuter than what this thing actually does. So for one at the year, all the male email toads grow a row of extremely sharp facial spikes and these all are just above their mouth, and these spikes are tough enough that they grow straight through the toad skin. They're actually made of keratin, which is the same substance that our fingernails are made out of. But the best part about these spiky whiskers is their name.

Scientists refer to these as nuptial spines, which is just so sweet, don't you think? Maybe? I mean, I feel like I don't know enough about them to judge them some What are they doing with these nuptial spines? Well, they're really for defense more than anything else. And if you think about breeding season, it can be pretty competitive for a lot of animals, and of course these toads are no exception of that. So the males will frequently fight each other for the best nesting sites and these

nuptial spines are their weapon of choice. So basically, the toads try to get their spikes underneath an opponent so they can flip him over. And the spikes are really well suited for this, and if any of them are broken off during a tussle, they actually just grow right back. And then once the breeding season is over, they all

fall off naturally. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean I do like this idea of just watching these tiny frogs poke at each other with their mustache just for the right to mate with a woman, just being a lady toe and be like they're doing that for me, just spiking each other. It's pretty amazing. So it's being a weird habits that. There's this tiny marsupial in Australia. It's called the antagonists, and they kind of look like a mix between a rat and a mole, and they go through

an absolutely excruciating breeding process. It's actually called speed mating, which makes it sound cooler than it actually is. But basically, every year around springtime, all the males go into this testosterone fueled frenzy and for the next two or three weeks they just mate around the clock. Like this is an exaggeration, Like these guys stop eating, stop sleeping, They just go from partner to partner. They spend fourteen hours straight with each one is as just a crazy board.

I mean, how do they sustain that kind of pace? You think all the males would just keel over at some point. So that's the thing they do, Like all the adult males were born after the premis mating season, but not a single one of them is going to live that full twelve months. Like they literally made themselves to death. And it's during that two or three week vendor and it is grizzly to their fur falls out, they go blind, they get these internal bruisings and uh,

and then they just keep on mating. Ultimately, it's the male's testosterone levels, which are just sky high that kind of proves that I'm doing And this is how Wired breaks it down. Quote. While the testosterone mobilizes all the sugars and the antagonist's body so it doesn't need to feed for the three week orgy, it also glitches the mechanism response both regulating the production of cortisol, a stress hormone. Then small amounts results in bursts of energy and higher

paid intolerances. With runaway levels of cortisol, though, the male's bodies literally begin to fall apart, bone density plummets, blood sugar levels go nuts, their immune systems essentially degrade to

worthlessness as open source form and never heal. Of course, females are also quite stressed during all of this, but they don't produce anywhere near the same levels of testosterone, so their cortisol regulation remains normal well, and then the females, if they survive, which I guess most of them do, they have to go through that nightmare all over again the next year. So yeah, it seems pretty rough for

all involved. Yeah, I mean, the one good thing is that they do get a little bit of peace and quiet once that year's crops of males have all died out. You know, the females get to catch up on some rest and then like a few weeks into the spring, the forest filled with insects for them to feast on. And you know, now that half the population has gone, it's just easier to eat. It's clearly not a perfect

system though. In fact, there was this one ecologist named Andrew Baker who recently said, quote, if you have to sit down and design a reproductive system, you wouldn't come up with this one. It's the only option they've gone for carrying on the species. So you know, what are you gonna do? I think stay away from Australia during

mating season. Pretty bizarre, all right? Well, My next Gary animal courtship belongs to the angler fish, and this is another one of the males willingly destroy themselves for the sake of breeding, but it's a much more gradual destruction in this case, and the females definitely come out the clear winners on this one. So I actually think I've heard of this one. It's where the males are like parasites, right, that's right, And to be specific, we're talking about a

particular suborder of the angler fish. These are the serratioids, and they account for only twenty five or so of the hundred and sixty known species of deep sea anglers. Now, the females belonging to the suborder just look like what you think of when you picture an angler fish. You've got those huge mouths full of those needle like teeth, and that long curved stalk with a glowing tip to light the way for the smaller, unlucky fish. It's just

amazing to look at those things. Evolution and action of just unbelievable. But the male serratioids don't look like this at all. There's no needle teeth, no hanging lantern, and the weirdest thing of all, they are about sixty times smaller than the female. Sixty times. Yeah. So, in fact, in the nineteenth century, one signed has first started classifying the ratioids. They only worked with the female specimens because they didn't even recognize the males as belonging to the

same species. It was this big scientific mystery, like where are all the males? And it wasn't until the mid nineteen twenties that scientists realized what was going on. And that was when one researcher finally decided to dissect these smaller fish that were attached to the side of the female angler fish. And as it turned out, the male fish were right under their noses the whole time. They've

just been either ignored or misclassified. So I'm fascinated by this, like how exactly did the males get attached to the females and are they just kind of stuck there on the sides? Yeah. So, so the way that works is that the male angler starts to hunt for a mate by following this very species specific pheromone that the females

give off. And the males actually have the biggest nostrils in proportion to their heads of any other animal on the planet, so they at least have that bragging drive and so they're well equipped for this job, and apparently only one percent of these else ratioids ever actually find a female tonight with hard to believe. So for the lucky few who do find a mate, the next step is to bite into her belly and on for dear life.

So then, over time, the male's body fuses with the female to the point that their skin actually joins together, and so do their blood vessels. It's the weirdest thing. And then at this point the male is pretty much set like he's a total deadweight. He doesn't need to see, or swim or even eat like a normal fish anymore. All his nutrients come directly from his mate's blood. And so pretty soon all the organs the male doesn't really use anymore, they just start to wither away. Now we're

not talking about like all these internal organs. We're talking about eyes, fins of course, the internal organs everything. And so you've basically got this little lump that just feeds off the female in exchange for providing sperm whenever she's

ready to spawn. And it does remind me there's there's one friend from college that I think fits this description, might be Yes, Yes, that is really so creepy, and and I'm guessing stratias are pretty much monogamous, right, Like, like this fusing mating process doesn't seem like it's reversible. I guess you could say that the males are monogamous, because yeah, there's no going back for them once all of your organs and basic and your eyes are no

longer there. But anyway, it's probably because of how slim their chance of finding a mate is to begin with, So if they do manage to find somebody, they're literally not going to ever let go. But the females are a different case. I mean, they actually live up to like thirty years or so, so once a male has been completely absorbed and can no longer supply a steady stream of sperm, the females might collect several more over

the course of their lifetime. I mean, the more we talk about this, the more it just sounds like straight out of a horror movie or something. Actually, I came across this great quote about how unbelievable this all sounds. And this was from a naturalist named Willie Beebe, and he wrote this back in nineteen thirty eight, And this was after the truth about this bizarre maiding habit finally had been brought to light. And here's what he had

to say about it. To be driven by impelling odor headlong upon a mate so gigantic in such immense and forbidding darkness, and willfully eat a hole in her soft side, to feel the gradually increasing transfusion of her blood through one's veins, To lose everything that marked one as other than a worm, to become a brainless, senseless thing that was a fish. This is sheer fiction, beyond all belief unless we have seen proof of it. Well, it's a

very romantic process. But what do you say we switch gears and cover some of the sweeter, more thoughtful ways the animals used to find meat. That sounds like a nice change of pace. Mego. But first, let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the softer side of animal courtships. Okay, well, so earlier you told us about the nuptial spines, and now I think it's my turn to tell you about

something called nuptial gifts. You know, the word nuptial is coming up a lot more than I would have expected. But all right, what kind of wedding gifts are we talking about? Here, so it varies from species to species because all animals have, you know, different sort of ideas of gift giving, but insects in particular are big un

nuptial gifts. So male hang flies, for instance, attract their mates by hanging from the underside of a leaf while dangling some captured prey from their back legs, and the interested females the land on the underside of the leaf and hang the same way the men do, and then they lower their wings to signal for the mail to present the gift. And once the male holds the captured insect up to her, the female inspects his size and if she thinks the gift is large enough, she'll stick

around after dinner to mate. But if the gift isn't up to snuff, then she'll just drop off the leaf and head to the next one. I mean, I'm curious that, like our nuptial gifts always some form of like captured prey or our animals interested in other kinds of presence or what what are they looking for? Ye and food is probably one of the most common nuptial gifts in

the animal kingdom. Apart from insects, plenty of birds also offer food as a part of courtship, and and this mainly is a way for the male to show that he's physically fit and that he's off for the challenge of providing nutrition for their offspring, you know, if the

female cheese is to mate with him. But sometimes the presentation is lacking, like, uh, you know that there's this bird called the great gray shrike and it lives on a lot of different northern regions, And as nat Geo puts it, male shrikes impale their prey on thorns, creating a mouse kebab of sorts. Females survey the options and go for the mail with the media skewer. I mean, I guess they get some points for creativity if you want to look at it that way. Yeah, and people

obviously love kebab, so why should you know? I do want to get back to the insect world for a minute, because bugs can be just as resourceful as birds when presenting their nuptial gifts. Like I was reading about how male fireflies don't just rabbed the nearest prey and handed over to the mats. Instead, they actually make their own little nutrient rich bundles and they use a bunch of

specialized glands designed specifically for giftmaking. That's wild. And did you get a sense of what these bundles are made of? I mean, I assume it's gross, whatever the answer is, Yeah, it definitely is. But you know, researchers have actually dissected these nuptial gifts and they've run all sorts of genetic tests on them, and it turns out the gooey little bundles are packed with more than two hundred different proteins, which is kind of wild when you remember that, like

it all came from a male firefly. But what's even more impressive are some of the highly specific jobs that these proteins do. So for instance, some of the compounds would like prompt the female to produce more eggs. Some of them increase the efficacy of the male sperm. There's even this one toxic chemical in there that apparently makes firefly eggs taste terrible. I haven't checked on this to composer myself, but you know, it's obviously helpful for protecting

eggs from predators and it is all super effective. In fact, the search team that broke down the ingredient list also found that female fireflies who consume nuptial gifts ultimately produce more eggs throughout their lifetime, and they even live longer too. And of course this works out well for the males as well, you know, because the ones who produce larger

gifts tend to have more offspring. I mean, I kind of wish there was an animal that gave gifts kind of like we do, you know, like something that's just a show of affection and not really useful on its own. So I'm curious or all of these animals giving like useful types of gifts, or did you come across any of that were just like for fun or is a sign of affection. So it's funny you should say that, because I was actually looking for that as well, and

I found The male humpback dolphin does this. So once they find a female they like, the male will dive deep to the bottom of the ocean and search for the biggest marine sponge he could find, and then he balances that sponge on his rostrum, which is the word for that beak like snout dolphins have, and he'll bring it up the surfaces and finally toss it over to the girl. He has his eye on rostrum I never knew what that word was. And so is this something

that happens often? Like, it's not just a one off kind of thing. So that's what I was wondering too. And and there's actually a study last year from researchers at the University of Western Australian Perth, and they observed male humpbacked dolphins presenting sponges seventeen different times along a thousand miles stretch of Australian coastline. And those instances were spread across five separate dolphin pods. So it's not like there was just this one sponge happy family, you know.

It seems to be a species wide practice. I'm curious. So, like, what makes you think that these sponges are impractical gifts? I mean, it feels like maybe they could be using them as a tool for something, like I know dolphins

do that with with certain things. Yeah, that's true. So lots of dolphins use marine sponges when they're forging for food, like um bottlenose dolphins, they'll stick the sponges on the tip of their rostrum so that they can scrounge for food without cutting up their noses or you know, on all these like sharp rocks or shells that are around. It's pretty clever, but that's not what's going on with

the humpbacked dolphins. And Australian research team martyred the females who receives sponges and according to them, the females definitely didn't you the gifts for forging. Instead, the researchers think the whole thing might be a test of the male's character or kind of a demonstration of his quality as a mate. So this is how Atlas Obscure explains the theory quote Choosing the right sponge and successfully extricating it from whatever hard thing it was attached to could be

a sign of dexterity and strength. On top of that, finding and presenting the sponge may also represent a symbol of cognitive ability, the researchers report, because not just any numb skull can find a sponge that good. What's more, it is a risky operation that exposes the mail to the risk of shark attacks. He's not just strong, capable and smart, ladies, he's brave too. That's pretty adorable, and you're right, it's pretty human like as well when you

think about it. But you know, there's more than one way for animals to show their physical fitness. You can, you know, like you were talking about, could present a big piece of food or some handsome sponge as as one option, but plenty of other animals prefer to show

off their fancy footwork instead. Now birds are, of course as sectially famous for their dance moves, and we probably all remember that section on birds of Paradise from the Planet Earth series where they use these elaborate displays of plumage and intricate dance steps to attract to may. But one performer who often gets lost in the shuffle is

the humble fiddler crab. So when it's time to make, male fiddlers gather in large groups and they just frantically wave their one oversized claws this courtship display, and because that claw is so massive, this can be a really exhausting exercise for these little guys, and particularly those who aren't in the best shape, because studies have shown that the more vigorously a crab waves his claw, the higher

his fitness level. So from a female's perspective, the more enthusiastic waivers are the crabs worth paying attention to, But doesn't that sound pathetically like they're just sitting there waving their hands saying pick me. It feels rough. You know what exactly is the criteria? Like? Is it just whoever waves the fastest? Well sort of. So research on this has shown that the female fiddler crabs are sensitive tempo changes in the male's performance, but they don't necessarily go

for the faster waiver. Instead, researchers have found that the females prefer the crabs that ramp up their waving over time to those who slow down or maintain a steady speed. So even if one crab is waving faster than the others, if that speed remains constant, the female will likely lose interest in favor of the guy who is gradually picking

up speed. And this is because, as one researcher put it, female is not only taken to account the current level of courtship signal production, but also any changes in rate, which might provide information about a male's quality. So, for example, a decreasing rate might indicate that the male, despite appearing to be vigorous and effective as a signaler, has exhausted his energy reserves. So even though keeping a steady speed

likely indicates that a crab is in good shape. Female fiddlers only want the best, you know, We've always heard that before. Female fiddlers only want the best, and in this case that means a crab with stamina, so the one that can wave the longest and actually get faster as time goes on. So as much as I like hearing about philocrats, it did sound like you wanted to

talk about birds too. Yeah. Birds definitely have some of the most complicated and and maybe artful courtship rituals in the animal kingdom, and well, I don't think we can do their dances justice on a podcast. The bower bird practices a completely different art form and it's one that we definitely need to talk about. But before we do, let's take one more quick break art mengo. So it's

finally time to talk about bower birds. Now. There are twenty four species of these guys spread throughout Australia and New Guinea, and they all take part in one of

the world's most bizarre and complex courtship rituals. Now. Unlike Show Your Birds, male bower birds don't typically have dramatic plumes or bright colored others to help catch the eye of a mate, so instead they gather up twigs and then they methodically and artfully construct these elaborate structures called bowers, which of course is where the birds get their name. And the thing to remember here is that these bowers are not nest. Instead, they're intended solely as a place

for the males to just show off. Yeah, so I've read up about bower birds in the past, and I remember that these structures are kind of like art galleries, like well, one part of the bower serves as a stage for the male to stry to stuff on, and the rest of the space is dedicated to this carefully curated display of hundreds or sometimes I want to say, even thousands of objects, and it's wild how sprawling these

displays can be. But I did read that the average male lives for about thirty years, so they actually start collecting objects for their bowers at around age five, So the collectors with the biggest displays have probably been at this for a while now. But the cool thing though, is that there's a lot of variants across the species when it comes to the design of these bowers and

the objects displayed within them. So, for instance, the males of some species build these cave like bowers, Like they're kind of these rounded dens with an overhanging roof and the front is wide open though, and then there's just a big space. They're called a court where the males display their treasures. But then they're the species that take a slightly different approach, like their bowers are a little

simpler to construct. There just two rows of vertical sticks leaned together to form this little bird tunnel, or sometimes the tunnel elects will be made of thatched twigs. And in this arrangement, the female enters through one end of the tunnel and then proceeds down a half meter stretch called the avenue, towards the court of objects on the other side. I love the idea of a bird avenue is so great. I do love how complicated all of

this is. You know, like there's so much terminology. They're different cards of architecture, and you know, it does feel like these guys are just compensating for their lack of fancy plumage. Either way, though, you know, I can't tell whether these birds are hoarders or is there artists. I'd like to think that there are, I mean, bower birds definitely have an eye for aesthetics. In fact, the birds actually keep all their objects arranged by color, and this

is just so strange. But there might be rows of red things like berries and rocks, or even bits of plastic like whatever they find. Or maybe you find a bird with more subdued taste, so he decorates his cord and more of a gray motif, using bones and shells and stones. But that's not even all, because male bower birds also incorporate visual allusions into their bowers. Like these birds their magicians, mang go, So I do like the sound of this. What what type of visual tricks are

we talking about? The illusions may go not tricks. Don't. Don't insult the bower birds. It's really impressive what they do. But what's really going on here is that the males are using forced perspective to make themselves appear bigger and therefore more appealing to these potential mates. So here's how it works. When a male arranges his court, he doesn't pay attention just to the color of the objects, but

also to their size as well. He places them so the larger objects are farther away from the female's eye and the smaller ones are closer to her, and the effect of this is that all the objects in the court appear to be the same size from the female's perspective, you know, when she's standing at the opposite end of the avenue, for instance. So that's interesting because it's pretty much the opposite of how we usually see force perspective use. Like,

think about the castle at Disneyland. It looks way taller than it actually is because the windows near the top are smaller than the ones closer to the bottom, and that makes the top windows seem further way. Yeah, that's exactly right. I guess I could have saved sometime and just said it's like Disneyland, but you know, the opposite.

But the court appears smaller, and the male bower bird usually stands to the side of it, and that way he can pop his head in and out of the female's view to kind of take advantage of that force perspective and make himself seem much larger than he actually is. And he might also hold one of the brighter objects in his beak and sort of way it at her while he does all this, Because you know, it's the small touches that mean the most, you know, but I'm

curious about, like, does this work? You know, do the females really go for all this smoking mirrors? I mean not always. A female will just as easily fly away if she thinks the males display lacks that polish, or maybe she's just more into berries than she is the snail shells or whatever it is. But if she does like what she sees, then she'll stick around for a few minutes, and that's a sign to the male that

she's open to mating with him. And you know, what's interesting is how much the strength of the visual illusion actually factors into the female's decision, because studies have shown that the birds that employ the most effective use of

force perspective, we're the ones most likely to be mated with. Now, as for why, that is something that, apart from making the male look bigger and stronger, the illusion is also a show of the male's intelligence and by extension, his ability to source food for his mate and for offspring. And on some level the females could be aware of at and so they connect great art with being a

great provider. I mean, it's weird to think that bower birds might have invented force perspective like millions of years before humans started using it, right, I mean, so bird art may have an even longer history than human art. That is crazy. So, you know, I do feel like we talk about bower birds as these great architects in the animal kingdom, but you don't often hear about puffer fish, who are basically the bower birds at the sea. And that's because they spend a full week or longer crafting

these ornate circular patterns on the sea floor. And of course they do this in hopes of attracting a mate. But once their circle is finished, female puffers will stop by to check it out, and if they're fans of the males work, then she'll lay her eggs in the center for him to furtile us. And so what exactly are the females looking for in these underwater crop circles or whatever they are, so, to be honest, no one

really knows. Like the males carve out the ridges and valleys of the pattern by carefully flapping their fins as they swim in circles along the sea floor, and the finished formations are typically about seven feet in diameter. So it's a lot of work for these tiny fish. I mean, the fish are only like five inches long, and it's possible the females are attracted by the show of effort, but it could also be that they simply like the aesthetics or the lines or the structures, or maybe they're

attracted to the coloring of the sediment. You know that there's no way of really telling yet, but it's kind of appropriate because you know, the patterns themselves were just as mysterious right up until a few years ago. So back in divers off the coast of Japan first started reporting these bizarre geometric formations they were finding, but no one knew who was making them until the researchers finally saw a perfect fish in the act. And this was

only in two teen. I mean, I love that the world is still full of these surprises, kind of like this, even after such a long time spent exploring it. And I'm gonna say, I looked up these puffer fish formations while you were talking about this, and it really is amazing what I'm seeing here. I mean, these things are so precise and beautiful, like they're like underwater sand men Dallas almost Yeah, I mean, listeners definitely look them off.

It's it's definitely worth it, all right. Well, I have to admit I was a little skeptical about doing a show on animal mating habits, just because it could so easily turn inappropriate or maybe juvenile even or maybe in wind up is like this big joke. But it's actually pretty fascinating thinking about all of these animals and seeing how they've each learned to do what they do, and they try out to be a lot more variance and the animal courtships than I had thought at first. Yeah.

So I was reading this interview in the Smithsonian with this great cats curator at the National Zoo, and his name is Craig Saffo, and he had this great line and it kind of perfectly encapsulists what you're talking about. So this is what he said, quote. I think mating behaviors of animals in general, humans included, are really odd and really cool when you get down to it. While it is very funny, it's also just a really interesting topic to talk about and one that people often shy

away from because it's taboo, but it's pretty vital. It's the very crux of existence. Well, in the spirit of that thought, what do you say we keep things going in the fact off and rat off a few more of our favorite animal courtships. So here's a funny one. According to pop Sigh, female cappuccine monkeys show that they're ready to mate by pouting their faces making a loud whining sound. I mean, this is what pop size says, or touching males and running away. But what happens when

a male is too daft to catch on. That's when female cappuccine monkeys start throwing stones at their objects of design. Often they're just trying to throw close to them to get their attention, but the males do get pelted pretty often. It's kind of like the third grade boy approach. A kidna, which are sometimes known as spiny ant eaters. They're monitoring, so like platypus, they're these strange mash up critters that

for some reason also lay eggs. And anyway, we don't know much about the kidnas mating process, but we know that the male has a four headed penis, and that kidnays produce an egg that gets old and carried around in a pouch. But the interesting thing about them is their courtship behavior. For some reason, and scientists don't know

why this is exactly. Males will line up in a single file line behind a female and then just waddle around behind her, and the train can be up to ten a kidna along with the youngest a kidnah in the back, and sometimes the kidnas switch lines, but mostly they just play follow the leader until the strongest males are still walking the others have given up, and then

the female chooses her mate. That's funny. So you know, male mice who want to impress their mates sing these ultrasonic love songs, but apparently what tune they sing matters, so the lady mice are super picky and they don't want songs that are similar to the ones that are sung by relatives. So it turns out that flamingos are

partial to make up. Apparently, the birds secrete pigments from glands near their tail, and during mating season they'll dab that color onto their cheekbones and then spread it all over their neck and feathers. The more they do this, the anker they've become, and the birds that are the most colorful tend to have the best luck with finding a mate. So here's what I love. You know, pandas are obviously not very good at mating, and they have super low libidos. I think we've all heard about panda

porn or these panda adult films that scientists use. You know, when they hear and watch other panda's mating, they get excited, but that alone doesn't up their reproduction rate. So researchers at cheng Do Panda Breeding and Research Center have actually taught them to do some special exercises to strengthen the male's hind legs and this increases their stamina. And this

combination has really worked. So according to the Smithsonian article, more than sixty of the pandas are now capable of having sex on their own, which is up from just twenty twenty years ago. You know, there were so many facts to choose from for this, and I know we'll have to leave some behind. You know. I found plenty of great facts about birds literally walking on water to impress their mate, or how male spiders will tap out

vibrations on webs to signal the fee males. I think we've talked about that a little bit before, but I think this is the fact I want to end on. Scientists recently discovered evidence that dinosaurs used to shake their rumps to attract mates. Now, this is according to a study in Scientific Reports, but researchers in western Colorado found fifty fossilized scrape marks left in one million year old sandstone. They found patterns that are similar to both puffins and

ostrich mating dances. I love the idea of these fossilized footprints, like it's evidence of dinosaurs doing the electric slide together. I think the fact that you brought dinosaurs into this episode really makes you the winners. Always got to deserve the trophies clows out with dinosaurs, So thanks so much. And of course I know, as I mentioned before, there are so many mating habits that we didn't get to, so many fascinating ones out there. We'd love to hear

those from you. Always love to hear your great facts. You can email those two Part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But as always, thanks so much for listening, Y, thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things. We couldn't even

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