FOR CHOOSING A MATE MANY ANIMALS ADOPT VARIOUS STYLES AND TACTICS DURING COURTSHIP, INDULGE IN DISPLAY AND DANCE AND PLAY INTERESTING GAMES USING VARIOUS SHADES OF COLOUR AND SOME VERY VERY STRANGE BEHAVIOUR .

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COURTSHIP GAMES
For continuing their line many ,if not most, animals adopt courtship
tactics, fight rivals, indulge in displays and dances and play the mating
games ;the competition is fierce and to succeed in mating games they
use every possible colour, sound and some very strange behaviour .:
American Male red sided garter snakes begin a frenzied race at just
one whiff of female’s sex hormones which they can ‘taste’ by flicking
their tongue in air .
In Malaysian swamps trees sparkle with thousands of female
Pyrophorous fire flies signaling their mates with a magical light show
in the mangroves.
Indian Moon moth has the most acute sense of smell in nature-it can
smell a single molecule of female sex hormone scent from up to 5 kms
away .
Green stink bugs sing and ‘telephone’ each other using body vibrations
sent as signals along plant stems utilizing the later as telegraph wires .
When Zebra stallions fight for a female their battles follow a set of
precise, complex rules-- like kaurav –pandav ?

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Sea anemones are known for slow motion under water battles ;although
delicate they are armed with lethal stinging cells laden with poison
which they fire off in vollies at each other .
BY HOOK OR CROOK
‘Everything is fair in love and war’ is not man’s monopoly
animals also ‘believe in it’ , nay practice it merrily ;
sharing many traits with us and among themselves
propelled by natural instincts they are also carried away willy nilly
by forces of attraction and repulsion as we do and perhaps
play the game better than us - more sincerely and interestingly !
Male adder snakes perform an extraordinary display of gymnastics as
a test of their strength and dancing spirally put off their rivals.
Male frigate bird of Galpagos isles attracts females by puffing out
its gaudy bright red throat pouch inflating and vibrating it ,
clapping his bill noisily and waving his wings .

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Australian Lyre bird is known for its talent of impersonation as it can
duplicate the calls of 16 other bird s; Other species such as parrot’s
screeches other birds songs and even dog’s barks .
European Great crested Grebe’s dazzling water dance is very famous .
In fact its mating dance is one of Nature’s most intricate ‘pas de deux’ ;
Actually mated pairs progress first to a ‘discovery display.’ and then to a
‘retreat display’ dashing across water diving and rising and thereafter to
an intimate ‘ weed dance’ in which pressed together the two grebs tread
water and rise up neck to neck, breast to breast each flicking a beakful of
weed from side to side .
As Salmon migrate towards their spawning beds, both sexes undergo
dramatic physical changes in preparation to mate—when female’s body
fills with eggs , Atlantic salmon Cocks skin changes colour –becomes
reddish, his head elongates ,his jaws enlarge and a hook develops on
the lower jaw ;
Other species also undergo conspicuous changes – silvery Sockeye
salmon’s back arches, his head turns green and body scarlet
and he develops fierce set of teeth ; and there after males battle over
females .

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Thatched huts , lichen-covered bridges, canopies ,silvery stages ,blue
tinted walls, maypoles, towers ,and alleys carpeted with sparkling
jewels-these are just some of the Australian Bower bird’s fabulous
constructions .
The male Stickleback turns red and he dances to attract the female fish
and to take her to the dome shaped mud ‘nest’ built by him and there
he tends the eggs and tries to oxygenate the water around them.
Mayflies are known for their acrobatic dance of death ;their larvae live
up to 3 years but when time comes they float to the surface of water to
breed and die in just one day ; First they moult as pre adult ,then
minutes later into an adult and when a female rises to join the swarm the
males dance mate and die all in a day .
The mating game in Nature has many other peculiarities,-
From hermaphroditism to sex changes we come across most weird and
wonderful practices. In fact :

5. Strange events 47
In some species males are literally devoured by their partners while
mating .
Male Cephalpods including Octopus , Cuttlefish and Squid wrap their
sperms into neat parcels and during mating push them through female’s
breathing tube-( its ‘nose’ ! ) and into her genital duct where sperms
spill out to fertilize eggs .
Many mollusks are hermaphrodites .-when two such individuals mate,
both will produce a batch of fertilized eggs .
Sex change is a common phenomenon in some species .;
Dusky slug changes sex with age--beginning life as male it turns into a
female as it develops.;
In Clown fish of Great barrier reef if the dominant female dies its
partner –dominant male turns into female ; but among Blue headed
Wrasse of the Atlantic if a dominant male dies the largest female turns
into male.
Shark courtship is a complex manoeuvre requiring the male to ‘dock’
along side the female ;It has two sex organs to enable him to dock on
left or right side with the help of claspers and the sperms are transferred
using a muscle driven hydraulic system into female .

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For Praying Mantis males, sex is a dangerous activity since male is
on female’s menu and it tends to eat them during copulation .However
,the threat of death does not damage a male’s sex drive. In fact ,once
the males head has been chewed off, a nervous reflex causes him to
copulate more vigorously--;and only if he carefully avoids her fore legs
and makes hasty retreat can he avoid being eaten .
Kidnapping and Child marriage are a curse not only for Indian humans
for Male Hamadryas Baboons kidnap young females from their mothers
to add to their personal harems .
Male spiders of some varieties try wooing the females with a nuptial
gift of an insect wrapped in silken cocoon and enter courtship cautiously
to avoid being eaten by the larger predatory female .
One species of American Catfish has an unusual mating technique
whereby the female drinks the male’s sperms .
The desert living male decorated cricket courts his mate by offering her
a delicious meal as a tasty gift.-As the male mates he transfers two
things –a capsule full of sperm and a large blob of a gelatinous
substance to eat .

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When African species of Velvet worm is ready to mate it sticks sperms
on any part of females body and they are absorbed through skin and
allowed to swim to eggs inside .; But Australian species have bumps
and syringe like shapes on their head and the male takes out and carries
sperms on his head and then delivers them to female by poking his
head into her cloaca .