Birds - Birds possessing the ultimate "flirting" superpower and the complex ways of animals

Numbers are "sex" in the already complex and dark natural world. Like mantises, for example, sex soon enough that the male is in danger of being inside his girlfriend's belly. And the following bird's tale will probably also make you feel like you've lost all faith in love.

The bird in the story is the lyrebird - the nightingale also belongs to this genus. This bird has a feature that when in danger, they will call out very loudly - a kind of warning signal, allowing companions and other nearby birds to go into defensive mode. This is a habit they formed during evolution to protect their children. After signaling, they will fly around, harass and even attack to scare away enemies.

But no one would have thought that this is also the way that male birds use to flirt with females. That's what experts in the US and Australia have just discovered, when observing this bird give off false signals and then fly around to trick the female birds, making them believe that the safest place is at that time. on the side of the male bird. But when "peaceful with you" is over, whatever happens must come.

Ornithologist Anastasia Dalziell from Cornell University (USA), the study's author, said that the simulation of this alarm sound is a pretty important part for male birds to mate with females. In their study, Dalziell and his colleagues placed a camera to record the mating sound of male and female birds, during the period June - August 2020, which is also the breeding season of this species. They found that during that period, bird alarms were heard with greater intensity and frequency - up to four hours a day. The sound is even made when the male bird is performing a dance to attract the female to mate.

"We gradually realized that simulating the alarm sound during mating seemed to be the general rule of the birds."

According to experts, the male birds used this trick to create a trap, making the female believe that there are enemies in all directions and that the safest place is probably only with the male bird. never mind. It's like "Honey, it's so stormy out there, stay here with me," so. The problem is that the bird's alarm sound is really hard to ignore, so it's almost completely effective.

In addition, experts also believe that in addition to tricking the female into having sex, this behavior also helps the lovemaking process last longer, thereby increasing the success rate of conception.

Well, after all, love is just a trick, at least for the bird!

In addition, the experts say they are looking to compare the female birds' responses to such sounds, in order to understand the benefits of this behavior to male birds. In addition, male birds also possess some quite strange behaviors when mating, such as using wings to cover the female's head. Experts are therefore trying to figure out how to decipher them.

Unlike the falcon, in the world of the chameleon, the chance to get lucky depends on its style as "wandering artists". The female chameleon only accepts to mate with the male who builds a beautiful and perfect nest.

The Australian bluebills build "love houses" on the ground out of twigs, leaves, rocks and other "floral" things they can get their hands on. But the main part is decorating the nest full of love. In nature, Australian green rolls are known as Casanova with a romantic way of seduce children. They can pick up the things we throw away, the colorful things to decorate the nest, then they invite the children to see the nest. If the female is eye-catching, they will enter the house and at that time, the male tries to entice the female by spreading his wings, waving and gliding around and then babbling.

However, this approach is not always successful. When the female does not like the colorful nest, they will leave and then the male has to build another nest to invite the difficult girls.

Flamingo

While many other animals change color or dance to get the female's attention during mating season, flamingos take a more advanced approach. Before mating, all the individuals in the flamingo flock together and perform movements to attract mates. They straightened their heads, marched, ruffled their feathers and turned their heads back and forth while walking steadily, looking quite like a parade.

Like artists, flamingos understand the power of makeup. So during mating season, flamingos apply an oil secreted in glands near their tails all over their bodies to give them a rosy color and make them more attractive in the eyes of their mates. Flamingos get their natural pink color from eating crustaceans, but the oils they secrete (usually used to protect against water-soaked feathers) contain substances called Carotenoids that enhance their color even more. .

kangaroos

The kangaroo is a common marsupial in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, although it looks cute, with an "innocent" face, but this animal is quite aggressive during mating season. The mating ritual of kangaroos has a certain order: The male first searches for a female by following the "seductive" scent from the female's urine, then slowly approaches the female until the female arrives. recognize its presence. As for the female kangaroos, they sometimes raise their paws for the male to smell them to suggest that she is also ready to mate.

And after that foreplay, things take a more violent turn. When mating, the male jumps on the female's back and copulates by holding the female's neck. Mating time can be up to 24 hours and after mating is over, the male sometimes attacks the female and kills his mate. And if the female does not agree to mate with the male, they will probably be killed by the male immediately.

However, male kangaroos also often exhaust themselves to death in the frenzied pursuit to mate as many times as possible. During the entire mating season, male kangaroos expend a lot of Testosterone (the sex hormone) and fight other males, and they spend very little time eating and sleeping. It is not surprising that at the end of the year, the majority of kangaroo populations are female and their offspring.

Puffer fish

While kangaroos use force to plunder, the male puffer fish knows how to flirt with fish girls. In fact, some species of pufferfish design and build nests for females to lay eggs in. Puffer fish are usually only about 12cm long, but their nests can be up to 2m long, wide and decorated with shells and coral.

The male takes about 10 days to build the nest, and if the female deems it worthy, she will lay her eggs right in the middle of the nest.

Hippocampus

Similar to humans, seahorses like to initiate the mating process by dating each other, lasting several days before having sex. A pair of seahorses in love will dance together every morning, when they are next to each other, knitting their tails and swimming together gracefully in sync.

Unlike the scorpion, the seahorse's dance is actually quite romantic, and witnessing it can make even those who are rigid in their relationship blush.

And then during the final dance, the female seahorse will lay her eggs in the male's pouch (the male will get pregnant) for it to fertilize. And after the male gives birth, it leaves to prepare to meet another female for the new mating season.

Albatross

The albatross love life has many levels. For starters, they will be a couple where both the male and the female work together to care for their young (rare in the animal world). They then have a rather "stupid" and humorous mating ritual that biologists describe as a dance but, to many, look like birds fencing with their beaks.

Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish are mollusks known for their camouflage abilities. While the 1-second color change is useful for evading predators, cuttlefish have also acquired the skill to flirt and find a mate.

In most cuttlefish populations, males predominately outnumber females (sometimes 10/1), meaning the males are constantly fighting for a mate. With such high competition, it seems unlikely that the smaller males will have a chance to mate.

However, in this struggle, muscles do not always win. Clever cuttlefish can disguise themselves as females by changing their colors, hiding their extra "arms" (males have an extra arm for sperm production - so to speak. genitals) and pretends to be holding an egg bag. When the disguise is complete, it can sneak past all the other fighting males and entice the female to flee.