View allAll Photos Tagged copulating
The amazing thing is that I witnessed it four times in three days (in two different cities). No wonder there are so many of the things...
Well, believe it or not, I tried to limit these a bit. This is my set from Lyon, France. (go on, view the slideshow... it'll be fun!). It's a bit scattered again, but hopefully you'll enjoy!
I have been watching butterflies for decades and have never seen such an aggressive, persistent intrusion to a copulating pair of butterflies. These Small Blue butterflies were copulating quite happily when another male arrived and started to buzz them. This didn't seem to have the desired effect of separating them so he landed on the flower next to them and forced himself underneath their joined abdomens. That was the exact moment I photographed here. Try as he might, the mating pair remained connected, so after several minutes the intruder seemed to get the message and flew away.
When butterflies (and many other creatures) mate they deposit a "package" of sperms in a spermatophore. This means that once a buuterfly has mated, any sperms from subsequent matings are unlikely to get through to fertilise any eggs. Which makes this intrusive behaviour even more unusual. Some male insects, for example Dragonflies and Damselflies, have special hooks on their "intromittent organ" (known as an aedeagus) which can remove the spermatophore from earlier matings. This explains why male Dragonflies keep hold of the female after mating until she has laid all of her eggs, as any later matings would remove all his good work.
Migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) mating. Surrey, UK.
Male on the right. Someone more confident of their dragonfly anatomy than me might like to annotate the various parts...
First observed mating of the season
Nov. 28, 2018
Photograph by Sue Greeley US National Arboretum/USDA
A pretty spectacular if tiny plant. It emits pheromones to seduce would be suitors into pseudo copulation with the flower, thus depositing polina sacks on the head of the wanna be Romeo. A single insect can be fooled several times before it realises something is amiss with his misses and then will not attempt to pair with the same plant again but by this time the scent's have done their trick and pollination is complete. The pheromones are so good that the plant doesn't even need to create nectar.
KOWA Telelens + Prysm
Panasonic LUMIX GH4 + 20mm f1.7
Paul Sayegh DIGIDAPTER
Male MIKI adjusting his position prior to copulation, must watch out using those claws.
Mississippi Kites observed in the Bloom School area of Rockford, IL
Mohammed Al Askar is the guy in the white thobe. He very kindly offered to show us the camels on his uncle's farm. The turbaned man is a Sudanese guy who tends them. If you look at the whole series it is quite funny. Mohammed is messing around at the rear trying to be funny. One of the camels sees this and comes across bellowing and protesting very loudly, and then proceeds to re-claim his female. It's the expression on her face that gets me every time ...
The female was resting on the bank, when the male appeared. She left the bank and swam towards the male, who was bobbing his head up and down. He swam beside her, and she stopped, and he mounted by climbing on behind. He grabbed the feathers at the back of her head, and at one point she was entirely submerged. After probably 20 seconds, it was done, and he swam away, and she followed him behind a patch of reeds.
These two copulating Gold Swifts Phymatopus hecta were actually the first imago individuals to be recorded in Norway in 2013. The female is on top, and the male swings below. Photographed in Bergen, western Norway 15 June 12013.
A pair of Woodhouse's Toads en flagrante at Hall Ranch. The black "ribbon" extending backwards from the female is an egg strand, that can reach up to 8 feet in length. The pool had several such strands in addition to the new one being added. Go Toads!
They soon got tired from there "intensive" love making.
Copulating llamas at Blijdorp Zoo, Rotterdam.
I have put this footage up in audiovisual before, but I just re-processed this clip today.
This is the Wedge-tailed Eagle I call The Magnificent Orange Female and Her (slightly lame much older) Mate.
The copulation took place above some roadkill carrion at the T junction of Roger Vale Drive (the road to Alice Springs Airport) and The Old South Road (Maryvale Road).
Their youngest sibling The Orange Youngster was below them on the ground at the time.
Six days later the male chased The Orange Youngster across The Stuart Highway near the Alice Springs south welcome sign. It was a very torrid chase off, then the male flew back alone.
I found her still tetchy in a dead tree beside the Old Ghan Heritage Railway Line. A Qantas plane flying low on final approach into Alice Springs Airport was the final straw for her. She flew to her independence from there 26 June 2015.
I was hugely privileged to be there with my camera rolling on movie for the parents' copulation and also for The Orange Youngster's flight to independence.
How hugely lucky and privileged I was :-)
PS: I left the road sounds in because I photographed them from the other side of Roger Vale Drive at the end of 600mm zoom lens.
PPS: They both knew I was there with my camera, but they went ahead anyway :-)
PPPS: The parents successfully fledged two from their 2015 breeding. I got to see the clutch twins when they were there with their parents around carrion beside Santa Theresa Road, March 2016
Greylag Goose - Courtship and Copulatory Behaviour
After copulation, male greylag stretches neck, points bill up, arches partly closed wings and often calls loudly......
The Greylag goose (Anser anser) is the largest and bulkiest bird in the waterfowl family Anatidae. Its distribution is widespread, with birds from the north of its range in Europe and Asia migrating southwards to spend the winter in warmer places. It breeds in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic States, northern Russia, Poland, eastern Hungary and Romania. Greylag geese are herbivorous and feed chiefly on grasses. These geese normally pair for life.
Mayesbrook Park (Barking), Britain’s first climate change park, is an attractive nature reserve with a newly restored river landscape. The Mayes brook has been brought back into the park within a widened meandering river channel creating an attractive river landscape to help the park to cope with more extreme changes in climate including heavy rainfall and drought. This new river system, with a gravel river bed and banks, provides an ideal wetland habitat for wildlife and at times of high rainfall it is able to rise in a controlled and natural way within a newly created floodplain.
The southern section of the park features two large lakes which are rich in wildlife. Aquatic plants such as reeds and rushes have been planted in ponds and backwaters, creating a rich habitat for wetland species. With over 40 hectares of open space, the park recently received a Mayor of London Safer Parks Silver award for high standards of site safety and policing.
Copulation de deux blindés au crépuscule.
Two armored vehicles copulating in the sunset.
Raaahhh, Lovelyy!!!!