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Whether or not you planned well for it, Valentine’s Day is here. I won’t comment on the human behavior associated with this holiday, but I can provide a bit of diversion and give suggestions about where to see animal courtship spectacles in Illinois.
Consider, suggests May Berenbaum, who is head of
the UI Department of Entomology, the bizarre (to us) behavior of some pyralid
moth males. In the process of courtship they beat females over the head with
the tip of their abdomen. This behavior may look like abuse to us, but in
reality its purpose is to transfer aphrodisiacs. Or think of how good your gift
ideas look when compared to the offerings certain male insects present to their
prospective mates: hangingflies, for example, which proffer dead flies, or certain
empid fly males, which court females with empty balls of saliva.
Makes a box of chocolate look pretty special after
all, doesn’t it?
Chris Phillips, who is a herpetologist with the
Illinois Natural History Survey, points out that in the world of amphibians it’s
not unusual for courtship to involve a communal aspect, because mating requires
frogs, toads, salamanders and others to come together at bodies of water. (Forget
cozy dinners for two at candlelit restaurants!) That’s where their eggs will be
laid so their young, which must live in water, can develop before going off to breathe
air live on land and as adults.
Barring unusual weather, the rains that fall in
late February and early March will get Illinois amphibians moving. Male spring peepers
and wood frogs will vie for mates by singing (or calling if you prefer, beauty
being in the ear of the beholder) in a chorus that can be uncomfortably loud
for human observers.
[Spring peeper and prairie chicken photos by author.]
[Spring peeper and prairie chicken photos by author.]
A male wood frog that lands a mate grasps her in
an embrace called “amplexus,” which may look much like a human hug. But he is
apt to hang on for hours, or even days, his grip secured by rough pads that
develop on his thumbs during the breeding season just for that purpose.
If you’re more interested in birds, UI avian ecologist
Mike Ward calls attention to two courtship spectacles that can be witnessed in
Illinois.
One is the performance of male greater prairie
chickens in the lek, a daily gathering during the breeding season where they
compete for the attention of females. Males spar with each other to occupy the
best positions in the field, and then put on a highly choreographed performance
that puts the funky chicken to shame.
Prairie chickens hang on in only a couple of very small
isolated populations in Illinois, within the confines of the Prairie Ridge
State Natural Area southeast of Effingham. If you want to witness their
courtship it’s best to make arrangements through the office there.
It’s much easier to catch the
hardly-less-impressive courtship of American woodcocks, which takes place
throughout the state, including a number of sites in Champaign and Vermilion
counties. Beginning sometime in March, at dawn and dusk male woodcocks put on a
display that culminates in the “sky dance,” famously described by Aldo Leopold
in “A Sand County Almanac.”
A number of groups, including the Urbana Park
District, the Champaign County Audubon Society and the Champaign County Forest
Preserve District, lead “woodcock walks” in March.
Maybe you could make a date to join up with one.
