Question: What do you find so interesting about animals mating?

Sam Tazzyman answered on 13 Jun 2011:

There are lots of reasons why it’s interesting. The first is that the way animals reproduce is a crucial part of evolution – an animal can be fast or strong enough to escape predators and catch food and keep itself alive perfectly well, but if it doesn’t reproduce then it doesn’t pass its genes on! By learning how animals mate we can learn a lot about why they look as they do, and why some species survive better than others.

But another key reason why I like it is because it’s funny and fascinating. There are lots of crazy tricks and bizarre things that happen, and I’m very curious about them. From angler fish, where the males are like a tiny swimming set of male genitals, waiting to attach to the first female that comes along, to the beautiful colours of many birds, there are lots of intriguing things that come about because of the way animals mate.