I’ve recently gotten a little bit obsessed with Dirty Jobs after watching a marathon a couple of weekends ago. My new obsession probably has a lot to do with Mike Rowe, but that’s neither here nor there. The episode that really caught my attention was the one where Mike visited a camel farm and helped a male camel impregnate a female camel. What the male did to prepare for the whole ordeal was quite strange and is the inspiration for today’s post. In fact, it’s #1:
1. In preparation for mating, a male camel kind of pukes up a pink sac called a doula. It hangs out the side of its mouth while the camel drools excessively. Apparently female camels find this quite arousing. See for yourself:
2. A hippo sprays his potential mate with his poo.
3. Similarly, a porcupine pees on his gal pal first.
4. Male grasshoppers sing for their supper… er, sex. They have more than 400 songs they use to serenade a female and each one has a different meaning. For instance, “Can I buy you a drink?” is a different tune than “Want to come up for coffee?”
5. If you’re impressed by puke, you’ll wish you were a white-fronted parrot. The male shows the female what a great mate he would make by regurgitating for her.
6. You can check out this jumping spider’s pick up lines in action:
7. The mating ritual of the Argonaut octopus is pretty memorable and would be an absolute nightmare in nightclubs if men could do the same thing – the male is able to detach an arm full of sperm and let it swim over to the female to fertilize her.
8. The anglerfish has quite a disturbing ritual: the male bites the female and then injects an enzyme that fuses the two of them together. Then the male dies and rots away… at least, most of him does. A small bit of him stays attached to the female and releases sperm when spawning season rolls around.
9. Flatworms are hermaphroditic, so they can be male or female. How do they decide when it comes to mating? Easy – they stab each other with their penises. Whichever worm penetrates the skin first gets to be the male.
10. Mmm, urine. That’s what a male giraffe thinks, anyway. Before he’ll start wooing a mate, he samples her pee. If it tastes good, only then will he start to pursue her.
Comments (14)
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Gross. But interesting none the less.
posted by ashley.paige on 8-24-2010 at 6:51 pm
Usually am sad that I can’t see the streaming video clips that are posted (at work). In the case of the Camel, I was super happy that I didn’t have to whitness that.
The Angel Fish thing is very distubing.
posted by Brit on 8-24-2010 at 6:59 pm
O_o
posted by jules84 on 8-24-2010 at 11:32 pm
You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals so let’s do it like they…uh, nevermind.
posted by BetteJean on 8-25-2010 at 4:43 am
I… er… Oh My. Not the best article to read while eating lunch, especially when Polenta and Apple Juice are on the menu. :-/
posted by Kate in Italy on 8-25-2010 at 7:17 am
I agree, Brit! Thankfully unable to view video at work! Nasty stuff!
posted by Hyacinth on 8-25-2010 at 8:59 am
Dirty jobs had the mating camels once… it was quite interesting and Mike Rows comments were pretty funny from what I remember.
posted by Steven on 8-25-2010 at 10:11 am
That spider video went from kinda cute in a way to absolutely horrifying there at the end. I don’t think I’ll ever get that noise out of my head.
posted by Heather on 8-25-2010 at 11:41 am
I’ve seen my friends do things a lot more stupid and disgusting things than the above to get a girl to sleep with them. Usually never works. Usually.
posted by Red Bunny on 8-25-2010 at 12:34 pm
I would highly recommend the book Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, which is a book about the bizarre mating rituals of animals written in the form of an advice column (for example, one of the chapters might start with a letter from a bird saying “I can’t attract a mate; what am I doing wrong?”), as further reading. I found it very entertaining and very educational. Who knew that some animals have little hands on their tools to scoop their rivals’ sperm out of a female during sex?
posted by Jina on 8-25-2010 at 12:42 pm
anyone see the Bed Bug mating ritual video on The Daily Show yesterday?
posted by where is carmen san diego on 8-25-2010 at 2:00 pm
For once, I’m glad that I can’t view video at work!
posted by Steve from San Diego on 8-25-2010 at 2:23 pm
…Why does the jumping spider look like it’s wearing a beret?
posted by MetFanMac on 8-26-2010 at 8:18 am
The Oatmeal has a great comic about the Anglerfish…
the porcupine uses urine to soften the female’s quills prior to mating.
And BetteJean… right on.
posted by Richard Y on 8-29-2010 at 11:17 am