Courtship displays at the Attwater Prairie Chicken Festival

This yearly festival is an opportunity for people to witness the unusual mating habits of the Attwater Prairie Chicken, an endangered species in Texas. For those that couldn’t attend, you can check out a description of their colourful mating behaviour at the Victoria Advocate’s website.

Cooperative Mating Behaviour in Sharks

Looking through some of Brian Larnder’s past post of Sexiest Animal on the Planet, I discovered this interesting article on sharks. I was surprised to learn about the advantages of male sharks engaging in teamwork to inseminate a female!

Terrifying Turtle Organs

Check out Darren Naish’s posting on Terrifying Sex Organs of Male Turtles. I believe this post coins a new phrase, “Hung like a turtle”.

This week's column...

will be postponed until Friday. Sorry life has been a bit crazy as of late. In the mean time, enjoy related topics explored around the web.

Panda Mating Frenzy

Last week’s column on Panda Pornography focused on the difficulties of mating pandas in captivity. This week, read about a successful matchmaking in BBC’s article about a Panda Mating Frenzy Hitting San Diego Zoo.

Sexy Sponges

Check out this week’s Sexiest Animal on the Planet: Sponges over at the Primodial Blog. As Brian Larnder says, you’ll never look at a sponge the same way again.

Bedbugs Shoot Up Too

In follow up to Monday's post on Giant Squids Shooting Up, the behaviour of ‘injecting’ sperm directly into the female is not limited to the giants of the seas. A male bedbug of the genus Cimex uses a spike on his penis to pierce a hole through the female's back. He then ejaculates into this hole and his sperm swim around the female's blood until they reach her ovaries. The fertilized eggs then develop into embryos which are born alive in the usual manner. How and why such a system developed is a mystery.