6 Strange Mating Rituals in the Animal Kingdom

When love is in the air, it takes more than candle light and soft music for some animals to mate. The animal kingdom has a number of strange mating rituals where one of the partners sometimes ends up dead. Below are some of the strangest mating rituals in the animal kingdom.

Octopuses

These intelligent masters of disguise go through a lot just to secure a mate that assure their future offspring’s. During mating season, male specimens practically break of their penis, which is actually a modified arm called hectocotylus which contains their sperm and leave it with the female. Octopuses actually die shortly after mating and laying eggs so making sure that they leave offspring behind is a must.

Porcupines

People often keep away from these animals because they have spines on their bodies that can really dig in deep, but some people find them cute and even keep them as pets. When mating, porcupines start out by rubbing their nose together. Afterwards, the male stands on its hind legs and just urinates on the female. Sounds a lot like a strange fetish, but it’s natural for these prickly animals.

Angler Fish

The deep blue ocean has a number of strange animals, some of which even look like they came out of our nightmares, like the Angler Fish. Angler Fishes, which can only be found in really deep areas of the ocean, have mating rituals that resemble a scene from the movie “Alien”. The male specimen would actually attach itself to the female and dig into her skin. It then fertilizes her when she’s ready.

Red-Side Garter Snake

Although orgies are looked at as taboo in the human world, to the Red-Side Garter Snake, this is something normal when mating season comes. Getting your eggs fertilized won’t be a problem if you have multiple partners. And a female specimen of this snake can take on more than a hundred male mates in one go. When mating, they look like a giant tangled up ball of snakes.

Slugs

They may not look like much, but these animals are pretty scary when they mate, especially the females. Male slugs need to be really careful when choosing a partner. Think of it as the search for the perfect mate. This is because male slugs have huge penises, and if they don’t find a female of comparable size, she might end up biting it off.

Midge

Kissing is one way to show our affection and love to our significant other. However, in some specimen of midges, what looks like kissing is actually the female pair sucking out bodily fluids from her partner.