Bizarre mating rituals in the animal kingdom
Not only does a male chimpanzee want to have offspring with a female chimp, but he also wants to keep other males from fathering babies with her. So he deposits the equivalent of a post-coital “plug” so females can’t become pregnant from subsequent pairings. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)
A male spider prepares for an encounter with a female by spinning a web and depositing semen into it. Then he pulls the fluid into a pair of appendages called pedipalps, on either side of his head. Now he’s ready to mate. (Karen Tapia Andersen/Los Angeles Times)
For the female spotted hyena, the clitoris serves several purposes. It’s how she relieves her bladder, and it’s also a birth canal. (Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Big feet mean nothing. That old story about being able to tell the size of a man from the size of his shoe “has no scientific basis,” concluded a 2002 study published in BJU International, a medical journal for urologists. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)