Before sending flowers and candy, before offering back rubs and foot massages, and before scheduling the restaurant, be certain to read this link to what other animals do for their valentines.
Love darts and flowers, picking off bugs and lassoing with private parts can all be a part of the fun used to attract a mate. He or she who wins this game, will have their DNA win the future and maybe some companionship in old age, so let the games begin!
For general hints, I like how the curator at The Natural History Museum of London, Tate Greenhalgh, put it. “Any sense that an animal has can be exploited for seduction”. Let’s review:
*Hearing: For humans, soft romantic music and gentle serenades will work. If you’re a haddock, humming will help you get the ladies. But be careful in the eastern United States. There, the toadfish hums so loudly that houseboats can feel reverberation. Objects of your affection may not be up for still more humming.
*Sight: For humans, a silky teddy, a clingy dress or a nice suit paired with fine china and candlelight are part of our mating rituals. For the red velvet mite, a male will “paint” a trail with silk enticing the female to follow the beauty of the lines to the end where a pile of sperm awaits.
*Touch: For humans a kiss or a caress may lead you to bliss. The article doesn’t mention mutual grooming among horses or chimpanzees, but we know from previous studies that those touches are prize winning.
*Smell: Flowers and perfume do the trick amongst humans. For male porcupines a nice spray of urine over their object of desire seems to be attractive.
*Taste: Chocolates! Even for nonhuman animals, the chocolate tradition continues in gifts of food amongst dance flies and grebes.
Enjoy this week of love and be sure to give the animals you love an extra piece of affection in honor of St. Valentine too!
About Animals 
Leave a comment