Each February, we celebrate Valentine’s Day as a symbol of love. In honor of the occasion, we asked our naturalists about some of the odd “love” situations found in nature.
TOGETHER FOREVER
Naturalist Meghan Doran: “Bald eagles are on the dating scene this time of year. Bald eagles usually mate for life, and put on quite a show while courting. It is not uncommon to see them locking talons and diving through the air. Bald eagles will add on to nests used in previous years, creating the largest bird nests in Ohio!”
LOVE ’EM AND LEAVE ‘EM
While a few species in the wild mate for life, most don’t. Indiana bats are polygynous, meaning males will mate with many females.
“These bats mate in October or November before entering their winter hibernacula. The interesting part of their reproduction is that the females are not actually pregnant directly after mating. The females store the sperm with a process called delayed implantation, which enables them to give birth in June or July,” said Elizabeth Kresse, interpretive naturalist.
WANT YOU TO WANT ME
Doran: “The salamanders we ‘hunt’ for in March have a weird courtship. Females will produce pheromones while in the water and then several males will surround them in a ‘mating ball.’ The water churns, the males make a fuss fighting for a female’s attention, and then the male does something really strange: They drop what we refer to as a spit wad on the bottom of the pool and hope the breeding female will be able to pick it up.”
SHAPE OF LOVE
Kresse said due to the position of dragonfly reproductive organs they have unique ways to mate. Primary reproductive organs are found at the end of the dragonfly’s abdomen, but males also have additional reproductive organs on their abdomen near the thorax. The male’s primary sex organ has claspers that are uniquely shaped to fit the area behind the head of the female of their same species. The common green darner forms a mating wheel, which looks very similar to a heart.
LAZY PARENTING
Doran said another spectacle is the brown-headed cowbird. Cowbirds ditch parenting altogether, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests. Females quietly find another bird that is actively nesting and replace one or more eggs with its own. The other bird species will unknowingly raise the cowbird along with its own offspring.
Have questions about local wildlife? Call a Summit Metro Parks Naturalist at 330–865–8065.