Romance is often one of the most important pursuits in life. Getting the right partner makes you feel blessed; on the other hand the not-so-right one will make your
life more miserable than hell! Learn some courtship tips from the wild today, some can
be really helpful while some are hmmm……. Up to you to consider.
Rule #1: You must have a
beautiful house, preferably well-furnished
 |
| Male Bowerbird and his bower |
Renowned for their unique courtship
behavior, where the male bowerbird builds a bower with remarkable decorations to
attract his mating partner. In courtship, the male bowerbird will perform a
dance to its love-at-first-sight, at the same time presenting her the
collections he has. In and around
the bower, the male places different variety of brightly colored objects he has
collected and has spent hours arranging. These objects may include hundreds of
shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic
items, coins, nails, rifle shells, or pieces of glass. Some of the items could
be stolen objects from his neighbours! Some studies have shown that the colours
combination of the collections males use on their bowers match the preferences
of females. The females often will visit several bowers, watching the
elaborating performances by the males, inspect the quality of the bowers and tasting
the colours the males used to decorate their bowers before she consider which
males to be her mate.
Rule
#2: Master the art of Seduction - Erotic
but without being rude
The twelve-wired Bird of Paradise male has red iris, long black bill,
rich yellow plumes along its flanks, and most uniquely from the rear of the
plumes, emerge 12 blackish, wire-like filaments that give the bird its name. The
males of the species really know how to “tickle” the ladies!
 |
| Bird of Paradise |
During the intimate act of courtship, other than elaborating his
fantastic feathers, the male repeatedly uses his wire-like filaments from his
torso to gently brush the female’s face. And apparently, the lady seems to
enjoy the sensation and often put her head among the filaments as she
approaches the male from rear.
Rule #3: Be a swinger….. Erm...
This sounds a little way too Wrong
Let’s take a look at the ‘courtship’
(maybe we shoudn’t use this word here) of the Sea hare, they are the true
swinger of the sea slug realm, and the true practitioners of Free Love. Sea hares are hermaphrodites, with both sexual
organs and can act as both sexes. They mate in ‘chains’, the first sea hare
acts solely as a female, and is mounted by a second sea hare, there comes the
third sea hare who mounts on the second sea hare who now acts as a male to the
first and female to the third. This chain continue so on down the line, till
the last hare, who acts solely as a male. Things are getting a little too
complicated here…
 |
| Sea hare in mating chain Photo courtesy: Anne DuPont |
Rule #4: Be a clingy boyfriend, I
mean literally “CLINGY”
Living in the deep sea, the female
anglerfish has a long protruding filament with a bulb to lure preys, this
feature is unique to only the females. Seeking easy access to food, the male
will hitch a permanent hike on a female by sinking his teeth into the female’s
body and fuse with her forever! Now he is so ‘clingy’ that he has become a
parasite, the only benefit from the male is, when the female need to fertilize
her eggs, she has the male gonads on her ever-so-ready.
 |
| Female Anglerfish with a male attached to her back |
Rule #5: Love is a battlefield,
fight with your...... what!?
Like the Sea hare, flatworm is hermaphrodite
with ovaries and testes. Love is a battlefield, to the flatworms, this involved
“PENIS Fencing”. (Yes, this isn’t a typo.)
During this (erm…) fencing, each
flatworm tries to pierce the skin of the other using one of its penises (again,
no typo here). The first who does the piercing will become the ‘male’ delivering
its sperm into the other. This battlefield is serious business, as whoever
becomes the ‘female’ must extend considerable energy caring for the developing
eggs.
 |
| Flatworms penis fencing |
