10 Strange Animal Mating Rituals

In the animal kingdom, mating is serious business because only those who reproduce “survive”. Female animals are quite choosy about their mating partners, and for good reason too. The females have to protect the eggs until they hatch or carry them inside them until they give birth. Finally, they have to protect their young until they are capable of fending for themselves. Their male counterparts, on the other hand, simply have to produce sperm, which is easy and fast to produce, by the way. For this reason, a female would see no point in mating with a small and unhealthy male as her offspring would have a lesser chance of survival after all the energy and resources she puts into caring for them.

Bees maintain a very structured lifestyle and live in colonies ruled by one queen bee. During the winter season, a queen bee forms a new colony by laying eggs. She lays two classes of eggs; the fertilized eggs and unfertilized eggs. Fertilized eggs hatch to become female worker bees and unfertilized eggs hatch to become drones or male bees. The worker bees forage for food and keep the colony going. A queen bee takes a mating flight with a male bee to collect enough sperm to last her lifetime of laying eggs. During the mating flight, the male is ready to inseminate the queen and this action can cause his testicles to explode which will kill him. There’s a reason why this happens. Insects have the ability to reach into a female to scoop out the sperm of competitor males. So, bees adapted to the exploding testicles method because by exploding their testicles, they break off their penis inside the female which closes off any chance of another male scooping out its sperm from the queen bee or mating with her. Talk about being committed to a relationship!

Number 9 Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise, a species of beautiful birds found in the coast of New Guinea and surrounding islands, put a new meaning into doing all it takes to woo a potential mate. When a bird of paradise male wants to mate, they come fully prepared, displaying their colourful feathers but most importantly, showing some serious dance moves. Their feathers are ornamental and come in varying bright colours. The dance moves are elaborate and are done to properly show off his beautiful feathers. The dance is something a female is sexually attracted to, if done right, while the color and quality of his feathers can tell her a lot about the state of his health and his suitability as a partner. If his feathers don’t look bright and lush, that’s an indication that he isn’t healthy. The dance moves are not something a bird of paradise is born with. They start learning the moves from an early stage. Unfortunately, if a female is not impressed by what she sees with the male, she simply flies away in search of a more suitable partner leaving the male to soothe his bruised ego.

Number 8 Flatworms

Flatworms, which are soft-bodied invertebrate animals that are found in marine, freshwater and moist environments, are naturally hermaphrodites. This means that they possess both male and female reproductive organs. Their mating process is mostly painful because they duel to figure out who gets to be the male or female, sometimes, this ends in death from multiple stabs. As with most species, the female will be responsible for carrying and caring for the young while the male continues life as usual. So, the fight to be the male among flatworms is quite serious. During the mating ritual, a pair of flatworms will try to stab each other with their penises to try and inseminate the other. The flatworm that successfully inseminates the other is the male and the other is left with the burden of responsibility.