MetaFilter posts tagged with mating

Not Tentacle Porn (well, kinda tentacle porn...)

quin — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:42:03 -0800

The sex lives of octopuses is often difficult to photograph in the wild, however Dr. Roy Caldwell got very fortunate with a pair in his lab. Here are some very rare pictures of the Abdopus aculeatus octopus mating, with a photo by photo explanation of what is happening.

Make love, not war.

cthuljew — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 06:03:10 -0800

Humon's illustrated (and explained) animal mating habits. [somewhat NSFW]

Crop circles in the sand

rhapsodie — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:43:18 -0800

The puffer fish mating dance.

Bowerbirds: intentional architects, and accidental farmers

filthy light thief — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:44:03 -0800

Bowerbirds, a family of 20 species in eight genera, are a fascinating bunch of birds who range from New Guinea and Australia. Some are flashy, others drab, but all are named for the "bowers" (avenues, huts, or towers of sticks; source) that the males craft and decorate to attract a mate. There are regional styles (PDF) in the design of the bowers, and the male Greater Bowerbirds even employ optical illusions. Some, like the Vogelkop Bowerbird, add mimicry vocal to their repertoire of courting methods. Add accidental cultivation to the list of fascinating features of the bowerbirds. Bowerbirds in Taunton National Park, Central Queensland were observed with a higher numbers of Solanum ellipticum, or potato bush, plants around their bowers than in other locations. The locations for bowers weren't chosen with more of these plants. Instead, bowerbirds selected the brightest green fruits to decorate their bowers, casting aside the fruit when they had dried out. With that chain of actions, bowerbirds are credited as the first animal beyond humans to (accidentally) cultivate plants for appearance only. Other species that "farm," in a fashion, include some social insects: some ants and termites (Google books) display a mutualistic symbiosis with fungus, as do some beetles, and some ants herd aphids. But these relationships are established for food, not beauty.

Are Birth Control Pills Changing the Mating Game?

goalyeehah — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:55:56 -0800

Two researchers have reviewed the body of research on the effects of birth control pills on both women and men’s perceptions of attractiveness, and have come to some provocative conclusions. “If you don’t take into account society maybe we’re all animals, but in social situations I don’t think there are many women who change who they would mate with at different times of the month. It might change desires or perceptions but, gee whiz, that’s a long stretch to changing who you would date, or even who you would go to dinner with”

Check out my voodoo mask!

lazaruslong — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:57:48 -0800

Excellent footage of the stunningly beautiful yet bizarre courtship and mating behavior of the Peacock Spider.This is quite possibly the first footage of this quality that shows this behavior. Many jumping spiders have elaborate courtship dances. More Previously.

If you think I'm sexy, and you want my body...

mudpuppie — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:49:19 -0800

Need some new moves in your dating arsenal? You could get low and funky, like an ostrich. Or even funkier, like a horned pheasant. You could go stampy, like a blue-footed booby. Triumphant, like a peacock. Desperately competitive, like a flamingo. Inflated and bloviating, like a frigatebird. Buzzy, like a satin bowerbird. Chest thumpy, like the greater sage grouse. Prancy, like the sharptail grouse. Indefatigable, like a golden pheasant. Dizzy, like a great-crested grebe. Synchronized, like a Western grebe. You could go all Inigo Montoya, like the Galapagos waved albatross. Or copycat, like the Northern flicker. Screechy, like a peregrine falcon. Bouncy, like a woodcock. Slo-mo, like a swan. Or maybe just act clueless, like a raven.

Picky picky

AceRock — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:32:27 -0800

Women may not be so picky after all. Researchers at Northwestern University have been finding some interesting things about human mating by holding and studying speed-dating events (pdf). Speed dating research has also produced findings about whether or not people actually know what they initially desire in a mate (pdf) and about the disastrous effects of giving off a desperate vibe (pdf). How these new findings fit in with (or refute) previous evolutionary research (pdf) on mating preferences has yet to be determined.

Insex.

gman — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:09:27 -0800

Photos of various insects mating.

Stupid sexy spiders

idiomatika — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:21:28 -0800

Yet another reason to be spider-averse - traumatic insemination.

Celebrating digital film culture

sour cream — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:17:10 -0800

Our wonderful nature is a hilarious 5-minute animation about the mating rituals of the water shrew. The action starts at around 1:30. Other gems found at the bitfilm 08 Digital Film Festival include "The post-it note prison".

Ee-ee! Ee-ee! (Something slimy for you, my slimy darling.)

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:11:37 -0800

Some dolphins are easy and some are murderous rapists, but all of them are into the nookie. Amazon River Dolphins are the casanovas of the cetacean order, practised in selecting the finest mud glops or algae for that special cow.

En Garde!

dersins — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:29:26 -0800

The marine flatworm Pseudobiceros hancockanus engages in penis fencing [video]. SFW, I guess, unless your boss is a super uptight nudibranch or something.

Mate for life

growabrain — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:38:02 -0800

A mating dance of the waved albatross on The Galapagos Islands. (60 sec. plus some other clips below)

Jumping spiders are awesome.

lazaruslong — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:02:32 -0800

Jumping spiders use their legs to communicate courtship interests to potential mates. The minuscule impacts of spider legs tapping against the ground surface are detected by nearby spiders. This "drumming" cadence signals the spider's reproductive interests. The female detects the low frequency vibrations through her legs. She responds by allowing the male to mount her. Absolutely amazing video here. The sound is the best part, so make sure it's on.

The Dance of the Manakin

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:38:25 -0800

Manakins (Manacus sp.) are small, colorful sparrow-sized birds found all over Central and South America. Manakin males engage in elaborate courtship dances, including rhythmic sounds they produce with their wings. No one really knew how the birds made this sounds, until Kimberly Bostwick, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, went into the jungles of Ecuador to film the birds at 1000 frames per second. As it turns out, different species of manakin use entirely different motion to produce the sounds. The Journal of Experimental Biology has published the results, complete with videos. Mark Barres, who studies avian genetic population structures at the Univ. of Wisconsin, has also filmed the mating dance of the Manakins [.mov].

Periodical cicadas

TurkeyMustard — Fri, 28 Jun 2002 09:22:17 -0800

Periodical cicadas , the 13-year and 17-year varieties made up of 23 separate broods, sometimes emerge concurrently, as they did in Missouri in 1998. The result of their combined mating calls is a cacaphony. There are many different varieties of calls: those by Magicicada cassini, Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada septendecula are just a few. Brood XXIII is due this year. The prime numbers of the two cycles make it difficult for predators to evolve matching breeding cycles. More cicada links.