Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day, so here's a little
♥Animal Courtship ♥ quiz for you:
1. What does the courtship call of this bird sound like?
♥ Answer ♥
This owl’s song or call is supposed to sound like the sharpening or whetting of a saw, giving the bird its name: Sawwhet Owl. Listen for their incessant calls at night next month.

2. How do female river otters let male otters know when they are ready to mate?
♥ Answer ♥
You may think the answer is just common sense, but it’s really an uncommon scent. Females ready to breed produce a special courtship perfume in their scent deposits which males can detect.

3. What is this eagle "talon" you about wooing a valentine?
♥ Answer ♥
Bald Eagles perform amazing courtship displays in which pairs lock talons in mid air and then cartwheel down toward earth, separating at the last moment.

Last week this pair near Ellsworth got carried away, lost in the moment, and hit the ground, talons still locked. The man pictured, interrupted their reverie and the eagles unlatched and took off.

Front page Ellsworth American 2/7/08

4. How can the astute tidepool voyeur tell if Whorled Whelks are mating?
♥ Answer ♥
It’s not your grandma’s Lawrence Whelk! These snails get to rockin’ and a rollin’ during mating. Males internally fertilize females who mate with several partners before laying impressive egg cases.

5. How do lobster females attract a mate?
♥ Answer ♥
They urinate! Female sex pheromones are contained in their urine.

6. Muskrat Love: What does muskrat musk smell like?

♥ Answer ♥
Strawberries! No wonder they wrote a song about muskrat love!

7. Groundhogs are sound asleep on Groundhog Day, but when they do wake up in early spring they don’t look for their shadow. What are groundhogs looking for?
♥ Answer ♥
Male groundhogs wake up first and go around hunting for females still in their burrows or just awaking from hibernation so they can mate.

8. What do these male birds have to find beforethey begin courtship?

♥ Answer ♥
A gull-friend!

Happy Valentine's Day!