Valentine's Day for Animals?

Some animals use perfume to entice their Valentines.
Some animals, such as moths, attract their "valentines" with perfume called pheromone. The females release it into the air and dozens of male moths hurry to answer the "Be my Valentine" call. Some male moths are fooled by the Bolas spider. The spiders are copycats that are able to mimic the pheromone chemical. Their intent is anything but loving. When the male moths get to the Valentine party, the Bolas spider is waiting. Many male moths have met their untimely death just trying to be a sweetheart.

Some animals only wish they could celebrate with their Valentine in front of a romantic fireplace.
It's a good thing that male wood frogs have an antifreeze-like property to keep them from freezing when they come out of hibernation sometime in February. It's a truly love-struck frog that will jump into freezing water and sound his loud mating call to prospective female valentines.

Birds and animals celebrate by dressing up for a "night on the town" with their Valentines.
In a bird's world, the male is the one who is all decked out to entice a lady friend on "Valentine's Day".Females are so prized that they can just go around in any old "rag" and they are still pursued. In fact, females are so in demand that they literally have to resort to camouflage in order to be left alone long enough to tend their nest. And in the animal world, Mr. Painted turtle is the one that has the manicure. No fake fingernails are needed. They have very long claws. On dates at the local swimming pool, the turtles wave their claws around in front of their "valentine" hoping she will decide to become Mrs. Painted turtle. Like in the human world though, sometimes the female turtles get irritated and tell the male painted turtles to "get outta my face". Then the female just swims off to find a turtle that is not quite so aggressive.

Some birds attract "Valentines" by being house-husbands.
Bower Birds build elaborate structures out of sticks. The nests are called bowers. Then the Bower bird decorates the nest with shells, feathers, flowers and anything else he finds. If it is impressive enough, Mr. Bower will soon have a Mrs. Bower. Male wrens hurry back home somewhere north to build multiple nests in preparation for the females who are still vacationing down south. It's all for nothing though, when the female wrens decide on a Valentine and immediately trash his carefully built nest, Then the female re-builds it to a house more suitable to her taste.

Anything sound familiar?

You can learn more about the fascinating world of wildlife by visiting the National Wildlife Federation.

Newswise.com
David Mizejewski
www.nwf.org/wildlifewatch