When is animal mating season

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More From Discover. Recommendations From Our Store. Stay Curious. View our privacy policy. Website Accessibility. The males flap their fins and swim around creating circles of near 2 m in diameter, even though they're only 12 cm long.

Females come to examine the finished circles and decide whether they'd like to mate with their makers. Although they're sure the circles are important in mating, scientists are still unsure exactly what female pufferfish look for in an underwater sex lair. Bowerbirds, native to Northern Australia, are architectural-illusionists.

To attract females, they don't just dance or flash their feathers. They build a twig structure called a "bower," which they decorate with bones, man-made objects and stones the "court". When a potential mate arrives, the male stands in the court by the bower's exit and shows her the colourful objects he's collected.

The illusion? The objects are arranged with the larger objects farther away from the bower. From where she's standing, this makes him look larger than he actually is. When a drone bee has the rare chance to mate with the queen, it's the last thing he does. He ejaculates with an explosive pop, rupturing his endophallus. He becomes paralyzed and flips over backward. His barbed endophallus remains in the queen, ripping open his abdomen as it's torn from the rest of his body.

He dies. She holds onto his semen for later use. Manakin seduction is a double-act. Males approach in pairs, sing a duet and perform a dance together. After watching the double-act, the female decides if she wants to mate.

However, only the alpha of the pair ever gets to mate. The beta is a chaste sidekick, but he may not always remain so. Acting as a beta helps a manakin learn the moves to use if he becomes an alpha. Albatrosses like to travel.

They're migratory birds who can spend years at sea without ever touching down on land. But when they do come home to the Galapagos Islands for mating season, they always come back to their lifelong partner.

The pair greet each other with an intricate minute mating dance. When an albatross couple does breed, the parents will feed the hatchling for nearly a year until it is ready to set off on its own for four or five years without returning. Like many birds, male humpback whales sing to attract females. However, unlike most animals, they do so in chorus. When looking for mates, males gather in large groups in areas researchers call "arenas". They then spread out and all sing together to let the women know where they are.

Yes, "lovebirds" is actually the name for these small colourful parrots. In courtship, couples stick close together, preening each other and chirping. They build elaborate nests together. They feed each other by regurgitating into the other's mouth. They also mate for life. It may seem a bit much, but don't separate them. When separated from their mates, lovebirds have been known to die of a broken heart. Prairie voles are among the most monogamous and affectionate mammals.

They can sense when their partner is stressed and shower them with affection. They spend most of their time together, and that's usually how they like it: the couple will chase away other voles of either sex that approach them.

Except when alcohol's involved.