Speaker 1: I guess what will what's that? Mango? So I was
Speaker 1: reading the story in the New Yorker about tennis grunts,
Speaker 1: and as you know, I'm a tennis fan, and we've
Speaker 1: already talked about how grunting can help a player hit harder.
Speaker 1: I like how we've talked about tennis grunting multiple times.
Speaker 1: I do remember this fact that actually there is a
Speaker 1: slight advantage to grunting when you hit, because it, I
Speaker 1: guess it kind of muffles the sound of the ball
Speaker 1: hitting the racket, so you don't know the precise moment
Speaker 1: when it hits. Right. Yeah, that's right. But the article
Speaker 1: was about something slightly different. So apparently this researcher published
Speaker 1: a paper on how just by studying the grunts during
Speaker 1: a game, you can actually predict which opponent is going
Speaker 1: to win. And the researcher came up with this massive
Speaker 1: taxonomy of grunts, and he analyzed the tones and the pitches,
Speaker 1: and he came up with the system that actually beat
Speaker 1: Bookie's best guesses. But what was most interesting was that
Speaker 1: the researcher published this paper in a journal called Animal Behavior.
Speaker 1: And you only came to the conclusion because it mimicked
Speaker 1: what he was studying in Red male deer like the
Speaker 1: deer actually face off in this grunt match where they
Speaker 1: bark at each other from a few feet away, and
Speaker 1: it's what the New York referred to as a volley
Speaker 1: of roars. But as one starts becoming more dominant, the
Speaker 1: others grunts weaken and get thinner, and eventually they lose
Speaker 1: the match and the opportunity to make that's so funny.
Speaker 1: So but it works the same way in tennis or what. Yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: so when the grunting is stronger, you can tell which
Speaker 1: player is controlling the game. But the whole story made
Speaker 1: me think, like, why do male dear use grunting at
Speaker 1: one another is a way to win the maids affections?
Speaker 1: And why don't they do dances or something we're creative
Speaker 1: like build things? And what exactly are the strangest courtship
Speaker 1: tricks in the animal Kingdom? So let's dive in, say
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to part I'm genius, I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: Manesh Ticketer. And on the other side of the soundproof
Speaker 1: glass drafting. What is that a Craigslist at in search
Speaker 1: of a skydiving partner. That's our friend, the producer, Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: And if that sounds like a weird way to find
Speaker 1: a companion, well, I think you're right. It is a
Speaker 1: weird way. Well, in his defense, Tristan's flann was inspired
Speaker 1: by the mating habits of bald eagles. So bald eagles
Speaker 1: actually used a special kind of skydiving when they're testing
Speaker 1: out potential mates. So first the love birds fly super high,
Speaker 1: and then they lock their talents together and start tumbling
Speaker 1: and cartwheeling towards the ground. This is a move that
Speaker 1: researchers actually referred to as the death spiral. The death spiral. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it gives you an idea of the stakes, and
Speaker 1: the birds mostly let go before they hit the ground.
Speaker 1: But the whole thing is a test that the eagles
Speaker 1: can judge each other's fitness and whether they're good enough
Speaker 1: for each other to be a match, and if they are,
Speaker 1: they'll actually mate for life and they won't have to
Speaker 1: do this sort of dating technique thing again the next year. Wait, though,
Speaker 1: I'm back to Tristan, like, is that what he's basing
Speaker 1: his plan on or what I think? So? And It's
Speaker 1: why maya motto is always never take dating advice from
Speaker 1: birds of prey. That's pretty good advice there, Mango. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, the animal kingdom is full of plenty of
Speaker 1: other equally dangerous and complex or just downright bizarre mating habits.
Speaker 1: You know, you think about like the fist pumping fiddler
Speaker 1: crabs to the O. C. D. Bower birds. It's it's
Speaker 1: a wild world out there when it comes to the
Speaker 1: animal love lives. And so with that in mind, we
Speaker 1: thought it'd be fond to devote an entire episode to
Speaker 1: some of the weirdest and most surprising courtships from all
Speaker 1: kinds of different species. So we'll look at all the
Speaker 1: biological reasons behind each animal's preferred method of attraction and
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe we'll pick up a few tips along
Speaker 1: the way. Well probably not for these first year, because
Speaker 1: I thought we could follow Tristan's lead and get some
Speaker 1: of the scarier mating habits out of the way first.
Speaker 1: And if you look into it, there are actually a
Speaker 1: lot of those. So humans have the luxury of thinking
Speaker 1: of sex and positive and pretty pleasurable terms, but for
Speaker 1: most other animals, sex is strictly for survival where creating
Speaker 1: offspring is really the only goal, and many of the
Speaker 1: tactics for getting there tend to be pretty unpleasant. So
Speaker 1: there's this bilogist, Karen Bonder, and this is how she
Speaker 1: put it. From bugs to mammals and everything in between.
Speaker 1: The scene is set for violence, conflict, and war. There's
Speaker 1: no champagne, no roses. So on that note, where do
Speaker 1: you want to start? Well, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: want to talk about war, but I do want to
Speaker 1: start with Arabian camels. Now, these are the one humped
Speaker 1: camels that you'll find mainly in the deserts of like
Speaker 1: the Middle East and in Africa. And while they do
Speaker 1: have all kinds of cool ways to help their bodies
Speaker 1: retain water and beat that scorching heat where they live,
Speaker 1: the males of the species also have this really gross
Speaker 1: adaptation that they use just to let the lady camels
Speaker 1: know they're in the mood. So I like the word gross.
Speaker 1: Go on, Well, it's called a dulla and it's basically
Speaker 1: this inflatable air sack in the male camel's throat. So
Speaker 1: when one of these guys is ready to make they'll
Speaker 1: puff up a dollar and once it's nice and big.
Speaker 1: They flop it out of the side of their mouth
Speaker 1: for all the females to see. How did I not
Speaker 1: see one of these things before? Until we were doing
Speaker 1: the research for this episode? Had you seen one before?
Speaker 1: And the thing is just nasty, Like, it's pink and
Speaker 1: slimy and definitely doesn't look like something you'd want hanging
Speaker 1: out of your boyfriend's mouth on thing, But apparently that's
Speaker 1: what camels are into. I mean, that does sound disgusting,
Speaker 1: But is that where it ends? Like, do they just
Speaker 1: fluff this gross airstack out of the mounds and then
Speaker 1: just the ladies come running, Well, you'd think, but actually
Speaker 1: it's just the beginning. So once they're dollars are inflated,
Speaker 1: the Arabian camels start gurgling their spit to produce this deep,
Speaker 1: low mating sound. And this gurgling gets so intense that
Speaker 1: the camels start foaming at the mouth, which is of
Speaker 1: course just like that makes their dullars that much grosser.
Speaker 1: But if that isn't enough to catch a lady camel's eye,
Speaker 1: the males will then you know, they use use a
Speaker 1: good trick. They pee on their tails and the wave
Speaker 1: them around to spread their pharomones through the air. It's
Speaker 1: just beautiful. Yeah, I mean, they seem like a bunch
Speaker 1: of Casanova's. But it does remind me of male hooded
Speaker 1: seals and how they inflate this special part of their
Speaker 1: nostrils to attract a mate. So you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's that part of the nasal membrane that's actually called
Speaker 1: the hood, and that's what gives the seals their names.
Speaker 1: And when they blow it up to full size, it
Speaker 1: looks like a big foot long pink bubble just sticking
Speaker 1: out of their nose and it is so gross. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's also amazing that, like so many different species would
Speaker 1: be attracted to having like giant skin blooms from your face.
Speaker 1: It's just so weird. But but speaking of things erupting
Speaker 1: out of faces, that's just apparently what we're doing here today.
Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of the emay mustache toad? I haven't,
Speaker 1: but I love this idea of like little toads with
Speaker 1: handled bar mustaches. Well that would be much cuter than
Speaker 1: what this thing actually does. So for one at the year,
Speaker 1: all the male email toads grow a row of extremely
Speaker 1: sharp facial spikes and these all are just above their mouth,
Speaker 1: and these spikes are tough enough that they grow straight
Speaker 1: through the toad skin. They're actually made of keratin, which
Speaker 1: is the same substance that our fingernails are made out of.
Speaker 1: But the best part about these spiky whiskers is their name.
Speaker 1: Scientists refer to these as nuptial spines, which is just
Speaker 1: so sweet, don't you think? Maybe? I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: like I don't know enough about them to judge them
Speaker 1: some What are they doing with these nuptial spines? Well,
Speaker 1: they're really for defense more than anything else. And if
Speaker 1: you think about breeding season, it can be pretty competitive
Speaker 1: for a lot of animals, and of course these toads
Speaker 1: are no exception of that. So the males will frequently
Speaker 1: fight each other for the best nesting sites and these
Speaker 1: nuptial spines are their weapon of choice. So basically, the
Speaker 1: toads try to get their spikes underneath an opponent so
Speaker 1: they can flip him over. And the spikes are really
Speaker 1: well suited for this, and if any of them are
Speaker 1: broken off during a tussle, they actually just grow right back.
Speaker 1: And then once the breeding season is over, they all
Speaker 1: fall off naturally. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean I do
Speaker 1: like this idea of just watching these tiny frogs poke
Speaker 1: at each other with their mustache just for the right
Speaker 1: to mate with a woman, just being a lady toe
Speaker 1: and be like they're doing that for me, just spiking
Speaker 1: each other. It's pretty amazing. So it's being a weird
Speaker 1: habits that. There's this tiny marsupial in Australia. It's called
Speaker 1: the antagonists, and they kind of look like a mix
Speaker 1: between a rat and a mole, and they go through
Speaker 1: an absolutely excruciating breeding process. It's actually called speed mating,
Speaker 1: which makes it sound cooler than it actually is. But basically,
Speaker 1: every year around springtime, all the males go into this
Speaker 1: testosterone fueled frenzy and for the next two or three
Speaker 1: weeks they just mate around the clock. Like this is
Speaker 1: an exaggeration, Like these guys stop eating, stop sleeping, They
Speaker 1: just go from partner to partner. They spend fourteen hours
Speaker 1: straight with each one is as just a crazy board.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do they sustain that kind of pace?
Speaker 1: You think all the males would just keel over at
Speaker 1: some point. So that's the thing they do, Like all
Speaker 1: the adult males were born after the premis mating season,
Speaker 1: but not a single one of them is going to
Speaker 1: live that full twelve months. Like they literally made themselves
Speaker 1: to death. And it's during that two or three week
Speaker 1: vendor and it is grizzly to their fur falls out,
Speaker 1: they go blind, they get these internal bruisings and uh,
Speaker 1: and then they just keep on mating. Ultimately, it's the
Speaker 1: male's testosterone levels, which are just sky high that kind
Speaker 1: of proves that I'm doing And this is how Wired
Speaker 1: breaks it down. Quote. While the testosterone mobilizes all the
Speaker 1: sugars and the antagonist's body so it doesn't need to
Speaker 1: feed for the three week orgy, it also glitches the
Speaker 1: mechanism response both regulating the production of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Speaker 1: Then small amounts results in bursts of energy and higher
Speaker 1: paid intolerances. With runaway levels of cortisol, though, the male's
Speaker 1: bodies literally begin to fall apart, bone density plummets, blood
Speaker 1: sugar levels go nuts, their immune systems essentially degrade to
Speaker 1: worthlessness as open source form and never heal. Of course,
Speaker 1: females are also quite stressed during all of this, but
Speaker 1: they don't produce anywhere near the same levels of testosterone,
Speaker 1: so their cortisol regulation remains normal well, and then the females,
Speaker 1: if they survive, which I guess most of them do,
Speaker 1: they have to go through that nightmare all over again
Speaker 1: the next year. So yeah, it seems pretty rough for
Speaker 1: all involved. Yeah, I mean, the one good thing is
Speaker 1: that they do get a little bit of peace and
Speaker 1: quiet once that year's crops of males have all died out.
Speaker 1: You know, the females get to catch up on some
Speaker 1: rest and then like a few weeks into the spring,
Speaker 1: the forest filled with insects for them to feast on.
Speaker 1: And you know, now that half the population has gone,
Speaker 1: it's just easier to eat. It's clearly not a perfect
Speaker 1: system though. In fact, there was this one ecologist named
Speaker 1: Andrew Baker who recently said, quote, if you have to
Speaker 1: sit down and design a reproductive system, you wouldn't come
Speaker 1: up with this one. It's the only option they've gone
Speaker 1: for carrying on the species. So you know, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? I think stay away from Australia during
Speaker 1: mating season. Pretty bizarre, all right? Well, My next Gary
Speaker 1: animal courtship belongs to the angler fish, and this is
Speaker 1: another one of the males willingly destroy themselves for the
Speaker 1: sake of breeding, but it's a much more gradual destruction
Speaker 1: in this case, and the females definitely come out the
Speaker 1: clear winners on this one. So I actually think I've
Speaker 1: heard of this one. It's where the males are like parasites, right,
Speaker 1: that's right, And to be specific, we're talking about a
Speaker 1: particular suborder of the angler fish. These are the serratioids,
Speaker 1: and they account for only twenty five or so of
Speaker 1: the hundred and sixty known species of deep sea anglers. Now,
Speaker 1: the females belonging to the suborder just look like what
Speaker 1: you think of when you picture an angler fish. You've
Speaker 1: got those huge mouths full of those needle like teeth,
Speaker 1: and that long curved stalk with a glowing tip to
Speaker 1: light the way for the smaller, unlucky fish. It's just
Speaker 1: amazing to look at those things. Evolution and action of
Speaker 1: just unbelievable. But the male serratioids don't look like this
Speaker 1: at all. There's no needle teeth, no hanging lantern, and
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing of all, they are about sixty times
Speaker 1: smaller than the female. Sixty times. Yeah. So, in fact,
Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century, one signed has first started classifying
Speaker 1: the ratioids. They only worked with the female specimens because
Speaker 1: they didn't even recognize the males as belonging to the
Speaker 1: same species. It was this big scientific mystery, like where
Speaker 1: are all the males? And it wasn't until the mid
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties that scientists realized what was going on. And
Speaker 1: that was when one researcher finally decided to dissect these
Speaker 1: smaller fish that were attached to the side of the
Speaker 1: female angler fish. And as it turned out, the male
Speaker 1: fish were right under their noses the whole time. They've
Speaker 1: just been either ignored or misclassified. So I'm fascinated by this,
Speaker 1: like how exactly did the males get attached to the
Speaker 1: females and are they just kind of stuck there on
Speaker 1: the sides? Yeah. So, so the way that works is
Speaker 1: that the male angler starts to hunt for a mate
Speaker 1: by following this very species specific pheromone that the females
Speaker 1: give off. And the males actually have the biggest nostrils
Speaker 1: in proportion to their heads of any other animal on
Speaker 1: the planet, so they at least have that bragging drive
Speaker 1: and so they're well equipped for this job, and apparently
Speaker 1: only one percent of these else ratioids ever actually find
Speaker 1: a female tonight with hard to believe. So for the
Speaker 1: lucky few who do find a mate, the next step
Speaker 1: is to bite into her belly and on for dear life.
Speaker 1: So then, over time, the male's body fuses with the
Speaker 1: female to the point that their skin actually joins together,
Speaker 1: and so do their blood vessels. It's the weirdest thing.
Speaker 1: And then at this point the male is pretty much
Speaker 1: set like he's a total deadweight. He doesn't need to see,
Speaker 1: or swim or even eat like a normal fish anymore.
Speaker 1: All his nutrients come directly from his mate's blood. And
Speaker 1: so pretty soon all the organs the male doesn't really
Speaker 1: use anymore, they just start to wither away. Now we're
Speaker 1: not talking about like all these internal organs. We're talking
Speaker 1: about eyes, fins of course, the internal organs everything. And
Speaker 1: so you've basically got this little lump that just feeds
Speaker 1: off the female in exchange for providing sperm whenever she's
Speaker 1: ready to spawn. And it does remind me there's there's
Speaker 1: one friend from college that I think fits this description,
Speaker 1: might be Yes, Yes, that is really so creepy, and
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing stratias are pretty much monogamous, right, Like,
Speaker 1: like this fusing mating process doesn't seem like it's reversible.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say that the males are monogamous,
Speaker 1: because yeah, there's no going back for them once all
Speaker 1: of your organs and basic and your eyes are no
Speaker 1: longer there. But anyway, it's probably because of how slim
Speaker 1: their chance of finding a mate is to begin with,
Speaker 1: So if they do manage to find somebody, they're literally
Speaker 1: not going to ever let go. But the females are
Speaker 1: a different case. I mean, they actually live up to
Speaker 1: like thirty years or so, so once a male has
Speaker 1: been completely absorbed and can no longer supply a steady
Speaker 1: stream of sperm, the females might collect several more over
Speaker 1: the course of their lifetime. I mean, the more we
Speaker 1: talk about this, the more it just sounds like straight
Speaker 1: out of a horror movie or something. Actually, I came
Speaker 1: across this great quote about how unbelievable this all sounds.
Speaker 1: And this was from a naturalist named Willie Beebe, and
Speaker 1: he wrote this back in nineteen thirty eight, And this
Speaker 1: was after the truth about this bizarre maiding habit finally
Speaker 1: had been brought to light. And here's what he had
Speaker 1: to say about it. To be driven by impelling odor
Speaker 1: headlong upon a mate so gigantic in such immense and
Speaker 1: forbidding darkness, and willfully eat a hole in her soft side,
Speaker 1: to feel the gradually increasing transfusion of her blood through
Speaker 1: one's veins, To lose everything that marked one as other
Speaker 1: than a worm, to become a brainless, senseless thing that
Speaker 1: was a fish. This is sheer fiction, beyond all belief
Speaker 1: unless we have seen proof of it. Well, it's a
Speaker 1: very romantic process. But what do you say we switch
Speaker 1: gears and cover some of the sweeter, more thoughtful ways
Speaker 1: the animals used to find meat. That sounds like a
Speaker 1: nice change of pace. Mego. But first, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're
Speaker 1: talking about the softer side of animal courtships. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: so earlier you told us about the nuptial spines, and
Speaker 1: now I think it's my turn to tell you about
Speaker 1: something called nuptial gifts. You know, the word nuptial is
Speaker 1: coming up a lot more than I would have expected.
Speaker 1: But all right, what kind of wedding gifts are we
Speaker 1: talking about? Here, so it varies from species to species
Speaker 1: because all animals have, you know, different sort of ideas
Speaker 1: of gift giving, but insects in particular are big un
Speaker 1: nuptial gifts. So male hang flies, for instance, attract their
Speaker 1: mates by hanging from the underside of a leaf while
Speaker 1: dangling some captured prey from their back legs, and the
Speaker 1: interested females the land on the underside of the leaf
Speaker 1: and hang the same way the men do, and then
Speaker 1: they lower their wings to signal for the mail to
Speaker 1: present the gift. And once the male holds the captured
Speaker 1: insect up to her, the female inspects his size and
Speaker 1: if she thinks the gift is large enough, she'll stick
Speaker 1: around after dinner to mate. But if the gift isn't
Speaker 1: up to snuff, then she'll just drop off the leaf
Speaker 1: and head to the next one. I mean, I'm curious that,
Speaker 1: like our nuptial gifts always some form of like captured
Speaker 1: prey or our animals interested in other kinds of presence
Speaker 1: or what what are they looking for? Ye and food
Speaker 1: is probably one of the most common nuptial gifts in
Speaker 1: the animal kingdom. Apart from insects, plenty of birds also
Speaker 1: offer food as a part of courtship, and and this
Speaker 1: mainly is a way for the male to show that
Speaker 1: he's physically fit and that he's off for the challenge
Speaker 1: of providing nutrition for their offspring, you know, if the
Speaker 1: female cheese is to mate with him. But sometimes the
Speaker 1: presentation is lacking, like, uh, you know that there's this
Speaker 1: bird called the great gray shrike and it lives on
Speaker 1: a lot of different northern regions, And as nat Geo
Speaker 1: puts it, male shrikes impale their prey on thorns, creating
Speaker 1: a mouse kebab of sorts. Females survey the options and
Speaker 1: go for the mail with the media skewer. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess they get some points for creativity if you
Speaker 1: want to look at it that way. Yeah, and people
Speaker 1: obviously love kebab, so why should you know? I do
Speaker 1: want to get back to the insect world for a minute,
Speaker 1: because bugs can be just as resourceful as birds when
Speaker 1: presenting their nuptial gifts. Like I was reading about how
Speaker 1: male fireflies don't just rabbed the nearest prey and handed
Speaker 1: over to the mats. Instead, they actually make their own
Speaker 1: little nutrient rich bundles and they use a bunch of
Speaker 1: specialized glands designed specifically for giftmaking. That's wild. And did
Speaker 1: you get a sense of what these bundles are made of?
Speaker 1: I mean, I assume it's gross, whatever the answer is, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it definitely is. But you know, researchers have actually dissected
Speaker 1: these nuptial gifts and they've run all sorts of genetic
Speaker 1: tests on them, and it turns out the gooey little
Speaker 1: bundles are packed with more than two hundred different proteins,
Speaker 1: which is kind of wild when you remember that, like
Speaker 1: it all came from a male firefly. But what's even
Speaker 1: more impressive are some of the highly specific jobs that
Speaker 1: these proteins do. So for instance, some of the compounds
Speaker 1: would like prompt the female to produce more eggs. Some
Speaker 1: of them increase the efficacy of the male sperm. There's
Speaker 1: even this one toxic chemical in there that apparently makes
Speaker 1: firefly eggs taste terrible. I haven't checked on this to
Speaker 1: composer myself, but you know, it's obviously helpful for protecting
Speaker 1: eggs from predators and it is all super effective. In fact,
Speaker 1: the search team that broke down the ingredient list also
Speaker 1: found that female fireflies who consume nuptial gifts ultimately produce
Speaker 1: more eggs throughout their lifetime, and they even live longer too.
Speaker 1: And of course this works out well for the males
Speaker 1: as well, you know, because the ones who produce larger
Speaker 1: gifts tend to have more offspring. I mean, I kind
Speaker 1: of wish there was an animal that gave gifts kind
Speaker 1: of like we do, you know, like something that's just
Speaker 1: a show of affection and not really useful on its own.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious or all of these animals giving like
Speaker 1: useful types of gifts, or did you come across any
Speaker 1: of that were just like for fun or is a
Speaker 1: sign of affection. So it's funny you should say that,
Speaker 1: because I was actually looking for that as well, and
Speaker 1: I found The male humpback dolphin does this. So once
Speaker 1: they find a female they like, the male will dive
Speaker 1: deep to the bottom of the ocean and search for
Speaker 1: the biggest marine sponge he could find, and then he
Speaker 1: balances that sponge on his rostrum, which is the word
Speaker 1: for that beak like snout dolphins have, and he'll bring
Speaker 1: it up the surfaces and finally toss it over to
Speaker 1: the girl. He has his eye on rostrum I never
Speaker 1: knew what that word was. And so is this something
Speaker 1: that happens often? Like, it's not just a one off
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So that's what I was wondering too.
Speaker 1: And and there's actually a study last year from researchers
Speaker 1: at the University of Western Australian Perth, and they observed
Speaker 1: male humpbacked dolphins presenting sponges seventeen different times along a
Speaker 1: thousand miles stretch of Australian coastline. And those instances were
Speaker 1: spread across five separate dolphin pods. So it's not like
Speaker 1: there was just this one sponge happy family, you know.
Speaker 1: It seems to be a species wide practice. I'm curious. So, like,
Speaker 1: what makes you think that these sponges are impractical gifts?
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like maybe they could be using
Speaker 1: them as a tool for something, like I know dolphins
Speaker 1: do that with with certain things. Yeah, that's true. So
Speaker 1: lots of dolphins use marine sponges when they're forging for food,
Speaker 1: like um bottlenose dolphins, they'll stick the sponges on the
Speaker 1: tip of their rostrum so that they can scrounge for
Speaker 1: food without cutting up their noses or you know, on
Speaker 1: all these like sharp rocks or shells that are around.
Speaker 1: It's pretty clever, but that's not what's going on with
Speaker 1: the humpbacked dolphins. And Australian research team martyred the females
Speaker 1: who receives sponges and according to them, the females definitely
Speaker 1: didn't you the gifts for forging. Instead, the researchers think
Speaker 1: the whole thing might be a test of the male's
Speaker 1: character or kind of a demonstration of his quality as
Speaker 1: a mate. So this is how Atlas Obscure explains the
Speaker 1: theory quote Choosing the right sponge and successfully extricating it
Speaker 1: from whatever hard thing it was attached to could be
Speaker 1: a sign of dexterity and strength. On top of that,
Speaker 1: finding and presenting the sponge may also represent a symbol
Speaker 1: of cognitive ability, the researchers report, because not just any
Speaker 1: numb skull can find a sponge that good. What's more,
Speaker 1: it is a risky operation that exposes the mail to
Speaker 1: the risk of shark attacks. He's not just strong, capable
Speaker 1: and smart, ladies, he's brave too. That's pretty adorable, and
Speaker 1: you're right, it's pretty human like as well when you
Speaker 1: think about it. But you know, there's more than one
Speaker 1: way for animals to show their physical fitness. You can,
Speaker 1: you know, like you were talking about, could present a
Speaker 1: big piece of food or some handsome sponge as as
Speaker 1: one option, but plenty of other animals prefer to show
Speaker 1: off their fancy footwork instead. Now birds are, of course
Speaker 1: as sectially famous for their dance moves, and we probably
Speaker 1: all remember that section on birds of Paradise from the
Speaker 1: Planet Earth series where they use these elaborate displays of
Speaker 1: plumage and intricate dance steps to attract to may. But
Speaker 1: one performer who often gets lost in the shuffle is
Speaker 1: the humble fiddler crab. So when it's time to make,
Speaker 1: male fiddlers gather in large groups and they just frantically
Speaker 1: wave their one oversized claws this courtship display, and because
Speaker 1: that claw is so massive, this can be a really
Speaker 1: exhausting exercise for these little guys, and particularly those who
Speaker 1: aren't in the best shape, because studies have shown that
Speaker 1: the more vigorously a crab waves his claw, the higher
Speaker 1: his fitness level. So from a female's perspective, the more
Speaker 1: enthusiastic waivers are the crabs worth paying attention to, But
Speaker 1: doesn't that sound pathetically like they're just sitting there waving
Speaker 1: their hands saying pick me. It feels rough. You know
Speaker 1: what exactly is the criteria? Like? Is it just whoever
Speaker 1: waves the fastest? Well sort of. So research on this
Speaker 1: has shown that the female fiddler crabs are sensitive tempo
Speaker 1: changes in the male's performance, but they don't necessarily go
Speaker 1: for the faster waiver. Instead, researchers have found that the
Speaker 1: females prefer the crabs that ramp up their waving over
Speaker 1: time to those who slow down or maintain a steady speed.
Speaker 1: So even if one crab is waving faster than the others,
Speaker 1: if that speed remains constant, the female will likely lose
Speaker 1: interest in favor of the guy who is gradually picking
Speaker 1: up speed. And this is because, as one researcher put it,
Speaker 1: female is not only taken to account the current level
Speaker 1: of courtship signal production, but also any changes in rate,
Speaker 1: which might provide information about a male's quality. So, for example,
Speaker 1: a decreasing rate might indicate that the male, despite appearing
Speaker 1: to be vigorous and effective as a signaler, has exhausted
Speaker 1: his energy reserves. So even though keeping a steady speed
Speaker 1: likely indicates that a crab is in good shape. Female
Speaker 1: fiddlers only want the best, you know, We've always heard
Speaker 1: that before. Female fiddlers only want the best, and in
Speaker 1: this case that means a crab with stamina, so the
Speaker 1: one that can wave the longest and actually get faster
Speaker 1: as time goes on. So as much as I like
Speaker 1: hearing about philocrats, it did sound like you wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about birds too. Yeah. Birds definitely have some of
Speaker 1: the most complicated and and maybe artful courtship rituals in
Speaker 1: the animal kingdom, and well, I don't think we can
Speaker 1: do their dances justice on a podcast. The bower bird
Speaker 1: practices a completely different art form and it's one that
Speaker 1: we definitely need to talk about. But before we do,
Speaker 1: let's take one more quick break art mengo. So it's
Speaker 1: finally time to talk about bower birds. Now. There are
Speaker 1: twenty four species of these guys spread throughout Australia and
Speaker 1: New Guinea, and they all take part in one of
Speaker 1: the world's most bizarre and complex courtship rituals. Now. Unlike
Speaker 1: Show Your Birds, male bower birds don't typically have dramatic
Speaker 1: plumes or bright colored others to help catch the eye
Speaker 1: of a mate, so instead they gather up twigs and
Speaker 1: then they methodically and artfully construct these elaborate structures called bowers,
Speaker 1: which of course is where the birds get their name.
Speaker 1: And the thing to remember here is that these bowers
Speaker 1: are not nest. Instead, they're intended solely as a place
Speaker 1: for the males to just show off. Yeah, so I've
Speaker 1: read up about bower birds in the past, and I
Speaker 1: remember that these structures are kind of like art galleries,
Speaker 1: like well, one part of the bower serves as a
Speaker 1: stage for the male to stry to stuff on, and
Speaker 1: the rest of the space is dedicated to this carefully
Speaker 1: curated display of hundreds or sometimes I want to say,
Speaker 1: even thousands of objects, and it's wild how sprawling these
Speaker 1: displays can be. But I did read that the average
Speaker 1: male lives for about thirty years, so they actually start
Speaker 1: collecting objects for their bowers at around age five, So
Speaker 1: the collectors with the biggest displays have probably been at
Speaker 1: this for a while now. But the cool thing though,
Speaker 1: is that there's a lot of variants across the species
Speaker 1: when it comes to the design of these bowers and
Speaker 1: the objects displayed within them. So, for instance, the males
Speaker 1: of some species build these cave like bowers, Like they're
Speaker 1: kind of these rounded dens with an overhanging roof and
Speaker 1: the front is wide open though, and then there's just
Speaker 1: a big space. They're called a court where the males
Speaker 1: display their treasures. But then they're the species that take
Speaker 1: a slightly different approach, like their bowers are a little
Speaker 1: simpler to construct. There just two rows of vertical sticks
Speaker 1: leaned together to form this little bird tunnel, or sometimes
Speaker 1: the tunnel elects will be made of thatched twigs. And
Speaker 1: in this arrangement, the female enters through one end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel and then proceeds down a half meter stretch
Speaker 1: called the avenue, towards the court of objects on the
Speaker 1: other side. I love the idea of a bird avenue
Speaker 1: is so great. I do love how complicated all of
Speaker 1: this is. You know, like there's so much terminology. They're
Speaker 1: different cards of architecture, and you know, it does feel
Speaker 1: like these guys are just compensating for their lack of
Speaker 1: fancy plumage. Either way, though, you know, I can't tell
Speaker 1: whether these birds are hoarders or is there artists. I'd
Speaker 1: like to think that there are, I mean, bower birds
Speaker 1: definitely have an eye for aesthetics. In fact, the birds
Speaker 1: actually keep all their objects arranged by color, and this
Speaker 1: is just so strange. But there might be rows of
Speaker 1: red things like berries and rocks, or even bits of
Speaker 1: plastic like whatever they find. Or maybe you find a
Speaker 1: bird with more subdued taste, so he decorates his cord
Speaker 1: and more of a gray motif, using bones and shells
Speaker 1: and stones. But that's not even all, because male bower
Speaker 1: birds also incorporate visual allusions into their bowers. Like these
Speaker 1: birds their magicians, mang go, So I do like the
Speaker 1: sound of this. What what type of visual tricks are
Speaker 1: we talking about? The illusions may go not tricks. Don't.
Speaker 1: Don't insult the bower birds. It's really impressive what they do.
Speaker 1: But what's really going on here is that the males
Speaker 1: are using forced perspective to make themselves appear bigger and
Speaker 1: therefore more appealing to these potential mates. So here's how
Speaker 1: it works. When a male arranges his court, he doesn't
Speaker 1: pay attention just to the color of the objects, but
Speaker 1: also to their size as well. He places them so
Speaker 1: the larger objects are farther away from the female's eye
Speaker 1: and the smaller ones are closer to her, and the
Speaker 1: effect of this is that all the objects in the
Speaker 1: court appear to be the same size from the female's perspective,
Speaker 1: you know, when she's standing at the opposite end of
Speaker 1: the avenue, for instance. So that's interesting because it's pretty
Speaker 1: much the opposite of how we usually see force perspective use. Like,
Speaker 1: think about the castle at Disneyland. It looks way taller
Speaker 1: than it actually is because the windows near the top
Speaker 1: are smaller than the ones closer to the bottom, and
Speaker 1: that makes the top windows seem further way. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. I guess I could have saved sometime and
Speaker 1: just said it's like Disneyland, but you know, the opposite.
Speaker 1: But the court appears smaller, and the male bower bird
Speaker 1: usually stands to the side of it, and that way
Speaker 1: he can pop his head in and out of the
Speaker 1: female's view to kind of take advantage of that force
Speaker 1: perspective and make himself seem much larger than he actually is.
Speaker 1: And he might also hold one of the brighter objects
Speaker 1: in his beak and sort of way it at her
Speaker 1: while he does all this, Because you know, it's the
Speaker 1: small touches that mean the most, you know, but I'm
Speaker 1: curious about, like, does this work? You know, do the
Speaker 1: females really go for all this smoking mirrors? I mean
Speaker 1: not always. A female will just as easily fly away
Speaker 1: if she thinks the males display lacks that polish, or
Speaker 1: maybe she's just more into berries than she is the
Speaker 1: snail shells or whatever it is. But if she does
Speaker 1: like what she sees, then she'll stick around for a
Speaker 1: few minutes, and that's a sign to the male that
Speaker 1: she's open to mating with him. And you know, what's
Speaker 1: interesting is how much the strength of the visual illusion
Speaker 1: actually factors into the female's decision, because studies have shown
Speaker 1: that the birds that employ the most effective use of
Speaker 1: force perspective, we're the ones most likely to be mated with. Now,
Speaker 1: as for why, that is something that, apart from making
Speaker 1: the male look bigger and stronger, the illusion is also
Speaker 1: a show of the male's intelligence and by extension, his
Speaker 1: ability to source food for his mate and for offspring.
Speaker 1: And on some level the females could be aware of
Speaker 1: at and so they connect great art with being a
Speaker 1: great provider. I mean, it's weird to think that bower
Speaker 1: birds might have invented force perspective like millions of years
Speaker 1: before humans started using it, right, I mean, so bird
Speaker 1: art may have an even longer history than human art.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. So, you know, I do feel like
Speaker 1: we talk about bower birds as these great architects in
Speaker 1: the animal kingdom, but you don't often hear about puffer fish,
Speaker 1: who are basically the bower birds at the sea. And
Speaker 1: that's because they spend a full week or longer crafting
Speaker 1: these ornate circular patterns on the sea floor. And of
Speaker 1: course they do this in hopes of attracting a mate.
Speaker 1: But once their circle is finished, female puffers will stop
Speaker 1: by to check it out, and if they're fans of
Speaker 1: the males work, then she'll lay her eggs in the
Speaker 1: center for him to furtile us. And so what exactly
Speaker 1: are the females looking for in these underwater crop circles
Speaker 1: or whatever they are, so, to be honest, no one
Speaker 1: really knows. Like the males carve out the ridges and
Speaker 1: valleys of the pattern by carefully flapping their fins as
Speaker 1: they swim in circles along the sea floor, and the
Speaker 1: finished formations are typically about seven feet in diameter. So
Speaker 1: it's a lot of work for these tiny fish. I mean,
Speaker 1: the fish are only like five inches long, and it's
Speaker 1: possible the females are attracted by the show of effort,
Speaker 1: but it could also be that they simply like the
Speaker 1: aesthetics or the lines or the structures, or maybe they're
Speaker 1: attracted to the coloring of the sediment. You know that
Speaker 1: there's no way of really telling yet, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of appropriate because you know, the patterns themselves were just
Speaker 1: as mysterious right up until a few years ago. So
Speaker 1: back in divers off the coast of Japan first started
Speaker 1: reporting these bizarre geometric formations they were finding, but no
Speaker 1: one knew who was making them until the researchers finally
Speaker 1: saw a perfect fish in the act. And this was
Speaker 1: only in two teen. I mean, I love that the
Speaker 1: world is still full of these surprises, kind of like this,
Speaker 1: even after such a long time spent exploring it. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, I looked up these puffer fish formations
Speaker 1: while you were talking about this, and it really is
Speaker 1: amazing what I'm seeing here. I mean, these things are
Speaker 1: so precise and beautiful, like they're like underwater sand men
Speaker 1: Dallas almost Yeah, I mean, listeners definitely look them off.
Speaker 1: It's it's definitely worth it, all right. Well, I have
Speaker 1: to admit I was a little skeptical about doing a
Speaker 1: show on animal mating habits, just because it could so
Speaker 1: easily turn inappropriate or maybe juvenile even or maybe in
Speaker 1: wind up is like this big joke. But it's actually
Speaker 1: pretty fascinating thinking about all of these animals and seeing
Speaker 1: how they've each learned to do what they do, and
Speaker 1: they try out to be a lot more variance and
Speaker 1: the animal courtships than I had thought at first. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was reading this interview in the Smithsonian with
Speaker 1: this great cats curator at the National Zoo, and his
Speaker 1: name is Craig Saffo, and he had this great line
Speaker 1: and it kind of perfectly encapsulists what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: So this is what he said, quote. I think mating
Speaker 1: behaviors of animals in general, humans included, are really odd
Speaker 1: and really cool when you get down to it. While
Speaker 1: it is very funny, it's also just a really interesting
Speaker 1: topic to talk about and one that people often shy
Speaker 1: away from because it's taboo, but it's pretty vital. It's
Speaker 1: the very crux of existence. Well, in the spirit of
Speaker 1: that thought, what do you say we keep things going
Speaker 1: in the fact off and rat off a few more
Speaker 1: of our favorite animal courtships. So here's a funny one.
Speaker 1: According to pop Sigh, female cappuccine monkeys show that they're
Speaker 1: ready to mate by pouting their faces making a loud
Speaker 1: whining sound. I mean, this is what pop size says,
Speaker 1: or touching males and running away. But what happens when
Speaker 1: a male is too daft to catch on. That's when
Speaker 1: female cappuccine monkeys start throwing stones at their objects of design.
Speaker 1: Often they're just trying to throw close to them to
Speaker 1: get their attention, but the males do get pelted pretty often.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the third grade boy approach. A kidna,
Speaker 1: which are sometimes known as spiny ant eaters. They're monitoring,
Speaker 1: so like platypus, they're these strange mash up critters that
Speaker 1: for some reason also lay eggs. And anyway, we don't
Speaker 1: know much about the kidnas mating process, but we know
Speaker 1: that the male has a four headed penis, and that
Speaker 1: kidnays produce an egg that gets old and carried around
Speaker 1: in a pouch. But the interesting thing about them is
Speaker 1: their courtship behavior. For some reason, and scientists don't know
Speaker 1: why this is exactly. Males will line up in a
Speaker 1: single file line behind a female and then just waddle
Speaker 1: around behind her, and the train can be up to
Speaker 1: ten a kidna along with the youngest a kidnah in
Speaker 1: the back, and sometimes the kidnas switch lines, but mostly
Speaker 1: they just play follow the leader until the strongest males
Speaker 1: are still walking the others have given up, and then
Speaker 1: the female chooses her mate. That's funny. So you know,
Speaker 1: male mice who want to impress their mates sing these
Speaker 1: ultrasonic love songs, but apparently what tune they sing matters,
Speaker 1: so the lady mice are super picky and they don't
Speaker 1: want songs that are similar to the ones that are
Speaker 1: sung by relatives. So it turns out that flamingos are
Speaker 1: partial to make up. Apparently, the birds secrete pigments from
Speaker 1: glands near their tail, and during mating season they'll dab
Speaker 1: that color onto their cheekbones and then spread it all
Speaker 1: over their neck and feathers. The more they do this,
Speaker 1: the anker they've become, and the birds that are the
Speaker 1: most colorful tend to have the best luck with finding
Speaker 1: a mate. So here's what I love. You know, pandas
Speaker 1: are obviously not very good at mating, and they have
Speaker 1: super low libidos. I think we've all heard about panda
Speaker 1: porn or these panda adult films that scientists use. You know,
Speaker 1: when they hear and watch other panda's mating, they get excited,
Speaker 1: but that alone doesn't up their reproduction rate. So researchers
Speaker 1: at cheng Do Panda Breeding and Research Center have actually
Speaker 1: taught them to do some special exercises to strengthen the
Speaker 1: male's hind legs and this increases their stamina. And this
Speaker 1: combination has really worked. So according to the Smithsonian article,
Speaker 1: more than sixty of the pandas are now capable of
Speaker 1: having sex on their own, which is up from just
Speaker 1: twenty twenty years ago. You know, there were so many
Speaker 1: facts to choose from for this, and I know we'll
Speaker 1: have to leave some behind. You know. I found plenty
Speaker 1: of great facts about birds literally walking on water to
Speaker 1: impress their mate, or how male spiders will tap out
Speaker 1: vibrations on webs to signal the fee males. I think
Speaker 1: we've talked about that a little bit before, but I
Speaker 1: think this is the fact I want to end on.
Speaker 1: Scientists recently discovered evidence that dinosaurs used to shake their
Speaker 1: rumps to attract mates. Now, this is according to a
Speaker 1: study in Scientific Reports, but researchers in western Colorado found
Speaker 1: fifty fossilized scrape marks left in one million year old sandstone.
Speaker 1: They found patterns that are similar to both puffins and
Speaker 1: ostrich mating dances. I love the idea of these fossilized footprints,
Speaker 1: like it's evidence of dinosaurs doing the electric slide together.
Speaker 1: I think the fact that you brought dinosaurs into this
Speaker 1: episode really makes you the winners. Always got to deserve
Speaker 1: the trophies clows out with dinosaurs, So thanks so much.
Speaker 1: And of course I know, as I mentioned before, there
Speaker 1: are so many mating habits that we didn't get to,
Speaker 1: so many fascinating ones out there. We'd love to hear
Speaker 1: those from you. Always love to hear your great facts.
Speaker 1: You can email those two Part Time Genius at how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com or hit us up on Facebook
Speaker 1: or Twitter. But as always, thanks so much for listening, Y,
Speaker 1: thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several
Speaker 1: brilliant people who do the important things. We couldn't even
Speaker 1: begin to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Speaker 1: Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI MIXI
Speaker 1: sound thing. Garry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay
Speaker 1: Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the research
Speaker 1: Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve.
Speaker 1: Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Do we do?
Speaker 1: We forget Jason? Jason who