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Explore the fascinating mating rituals of lions, rhinos, mongooses, and other intriguing creatures. Witness the beauty and complexity of nature's courtship d...
- 20 min
- 3.9M
- Nature Bites
From mantises that both eat and mate with their suitors at once to baboon couples that can’t turn off the PDA, these animal mating rituals are both crucial a...
- 33 min
- 301.3K
- Smithsonian Channel
- Angler Fish: The clingy boyfriend. Angler fish mating begins when the male angler fish literally sinks his teeth into the female. He attaches himself permanently and lives as a parasite on the female's larger body.
- The Octopus' identity reveal. Abdopus auleatus has a complex mating culture. Some males live in adjacent dens to their female mates to guard them. Others, known as "sneaker" males, sometimes disguise themselves as females to slip by the guards and mate with the female.
- Hippopotamus ritual — A literal s**t-storm. Urine and feces are the cologne of the hippo world. To impress female hippos, males don't just defecate and urinate near them; they use spinning tails and some of the most powerful farts on earth to fling the mess far and wide, to make sure all the females in the area can smell it.
- Flatworms: En garde! Flatworms are seaborne hermaphrodites who can play either the male or female role in reproduction. When two flatworms meet, they extend sharp two-headed penises and try to stab each other with them and inject the other with sperm.
Mating Ritual is an independent pop duo from Los Angeles, formerly known as Pacific Air.
- Overview
- Red-Capped Manakin
- Western Grebe
- Bowerbird
- Wahnes’s Parotia
- Bald Eagle
- Related: Our Favorite Pictures of Birds Around the Globe
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Whether it’s with smooth dance moves or beautiful plumage, males go the extra mile to look good for females.
Birds have some of the most elaborate courtship rituals of any animal.
There’s a reason for that: Males of most species have to work hard to impress the females, whether it’s with killer dance moves or fabulous plumage.
“The elaborateness of the courtship ritual goes hand in hand with that extreme sexual selective pressure that leads to elaborate male traits,” says John Rowden, director of community conservation at the National Audubon Society.
The female then takes her pick, thus ensuring the traits that attracted her are passed on. (Read how watching sexy males leads to better chicks.)
The specific rituals are inherited, but practice makes perfect. “There’s certainly cases where the behavior can be done without having seen it or having been coached,” says Rowden. “They have the rudiments of it, but by interacting with females they get better at it based on feedback.”
There are more than 50 species of manakins, each known for its elaborate courtship rituals. But the red-capped manakin, native to Central and South America, has some particularly impressive moves.
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Related: BIRDS "MOONWALK" TO IMPRESS THE LADIES
Move over, James Brown. When looking for a mate, the male red-capped manakin snaps his wings and dances on a branch to catch a female's eye.
Grebes are well known for their enthusiastic courtship displays. In 2017, a rare video of the hooded grebe dance made a splash online—a “head-banging” maneuver that wouldn’t look out of place at a heavy metal concert. But that a western grebe succeeds in attracting a mate is nothing short of a miracle. Both the male and female must “walk” on water.
How do they do it? Grebes are the largest vertebrates that walk on water, and until a few years ago, no one had looked into it. By frantically slapping their feet at a speed of 14-20 steps per second (humans only manage about five steps per second) the grebe generates enough force to rise up out of the water. In groups of two or more, the grebes then sprint together, covering up to 66 feet in just a few seconds.
Bowerbirds generally aren’t the showiest of birds—they don’t have elaborate plumes or coloring. Instead, the male constructs a structure entirely for the pleasure of the female.
“There are certainly species where the male constructs a nest … but the bower is just a place for the male to show off,” says Rowden.
Once it’s built, the male uses anything from shells to dead beetles to leaves to decorate. Some even gravitate to certain colors, going as far as painting their bowers with berries. (See 13 photos that capture the beauty of birds.)
The competition is far from clean and males often fight, sabotaging each other’s bowers and stealing ornaments. But when everything is arranged just so, the male sings and, if a female comes, they’ll dance and mate. That’s the extent of the romance, though. Once they’ve finished, the female leaves and the male begins attempts to attract another mate.
Sporting an array of striking hues, birds of paradise are some of the world’s most dramatically beautiful birds—an asset when it comes to finding a mate, but which long made them the target of hunters. Males often sport garish ornaments—enormous plumes or breast shields—that feature in their courtship dances.
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Related: THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND THE BIRD DANCE
The team attempts to catch the female perspective of the male bird of paradise mating dance on video.
But the Wahnes’s parotia doesn’t bank on looks alone. He first selects a patch of ground where a female can watch from above, and then clears the floor of leaves to create a large stage. Then, with a bow, he begins his dance.
Shaking his head back and forth, he fluffs out his feathers. From the ground, the parotia looks as though he’s wearing a tutu—but the view from above is entirely different. To a female in the branches he’s a black oval, his iridescent breast plate all the brighter and the patch on the back of his head on full display.
When bald eagles fall for each other, they fall hard. In a spectacular aerial display, the pair soar to a high altitude and lock talons, tumbling through the air in a “death spiral.” The raptors let go before reaching the ground—usually. There have been cases where the eagles don’t untangle in time, resulting in a fatal crash. (Read why birds matter, and are worth protecting.)
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Related: Bald Eagle Webcam Highlights
Some highlight clips of bald eagle chicks, which hatched in this Washington, DC nest in March 2013, and their parents. The webcam is mounted in a nearby tree, which is why the camera is often moving: it's being blown by wind.
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Whooper swan. Hokkaido, Japan
Whooper swan. Hokkaido, Japan
Learn how birds and other animals use dance, sound, and visual displays to attract mates. From the moonwalking manakin to the head-banging grebe, see photos and videos of some of the most elaborate courtship rituals in the animal kingdom.
Jul 10, 2023 · Learn about the various mating strategies and behaviors of animals, from monogamy to polygamy, from courtship displays to mating dances. Discover how animals communicate, compete, and adapt to find suitable mates and ensure successful reproduction.
May 28, 2020 · The Bungalow is the titular track from Mating Ritual's upcoming album, The Bungalow, out August 21, 2020 on Smooth Jaws.Animated by Justen Hernandez, Megan M...
- 4 min
- 37K
- Mating Ritual
