Content Warning: explicit language, descriptions of sex, pretty wholesome episode honestly

Dancing, fighting, spreading sweet-smelling pheromones… all in the name of love. Lekking is a strange behavior that is a bit paradoxical in its hyper-competition but birds, frogs, bees, and even a few mammals all make it work. A male buffet where females have their pick of the best male, or perhaps a swanky second, and the males really don’t do much else but fight and dance.

Allan's Sources:

1. Kempenaers, Bart. (2022). Mating systems in birds. Current Biology. 32. R1115-R1121. 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.066.
2. Kirkpatrick, M., Ryan, M. The evolution of mating preferences and the paradox of the lek. Nature 350, 33–38 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/350033a0
3. Rathore A, Isvaran K, Guttal V. 2023 Lekking as collective behaviour. Phil.Trans. R. Soc. B 378: 20220066. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0066

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Content Warning: Drug use, including recreational drugs. Moral panics. Sexual references. Spoiler: ((it's not the cats))

Nicole's Sources:

1. Shi, X., et al. Repellency of Novel Catnip Oils Against the Bed Bug (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) | Journal of Medical Entomology. Oxford Academic.
2. Batume, C., et al. 2024. Evaluating repellence properties of catnip essential oil against the mosquito species Aedes aegypti using a Y-tube olfactometer. Scientific Reports.
3. Espín-Iturbe, L., et al. 2017. Active and passive responses to catnip (Nepeta cataria) are affected by age, sex and early gonadectomy in male and female cats. Behavioural Processes.
4. Johns Hopkins Medicine. 2019. Deet Gives Humans an ‘Invisibilty Cloak’ to Fend Off Mosquito Bites.

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Content Warning: cannibalism, suicide, coercive/violent sexual behavior, death during pregnancy, partner death, drowning, necrophilia

(start the episode at 36:12 to avoid our discussion of all of the above, which are discussed in the context of "most dangerous courtship behaviors". we promise, it gets much sillier after that!)

Filthy Animals is back! We open Season 2 with some very important data-driven nonsense to settle some burning questions about the world of animal courtship. TO WIT: Which animals are mating in the most dangerous way possible, AND who is doing it the most obnoxiously? Danger and stupidity abound. Let the great debate begin!

Sources: Allan's Sources:

Ancel, A., Gilbert, C. & Beaulieu, M. The long engagement of the emperor penguin. Polar Biol 36, 573–577 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-013-1285-9

Biaggio MD, Sandomirsky I, Lubin Y, Harari AR, Andrade MC. Copulation with immature females increases male fitness in cannibalistic widow spiders. Biol Lett. 2016 Sep;12(9):20160516. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0516. PMID: 27651535; PMCID: PMC5046930.

Maydianne C. B. Andrade, Risky mate search and male self-sacrifice in redback spiders, Behavioral Ecology, Volume 14, Issue 4, July 2003, Pages 531–538, https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arg015

Rachel's Sources: Drop Dead! Female mate avoidance in an explosively breeding frog (2023) https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230742

Breeding Mortality in the Wood Frog (2000) https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1735&context=jaas

Mothers want brainy babies: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2000/11/female-birds-choose-best-singers-have-smarter-offspring

Birds of the World - Golden-collared Manakin: https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/gocman1/cur/introduction

Nicole's Sources:

Han, C., and Jablonski, P. 2010. Male water striders attract predators to intimidate females into copulation | Nature Communications.

CicadaMania.com

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