Animal Sex: News and Features

Same-sex sexual behavior might have started out on an equal footing with different-sex sex.

Mary's species of fish never evolved to have sex or incubate live young. She did it anyway.

Meerkats are anything but meek — including when it comes to their mating behaviors.

Red-eared slider reproduction involves large claws, extra-long penises and numbers of eggs.

Western toad sex involves quiet searches, mating balls and streams of eggs.

Little is known about the mating behaviors of arctic-loving narwhals, also called the unicorns of the sea.

Female dragonflies say no to sex by faking their deaths, new research has found.

Lobster sex involves battles for dominance, calming urine and tender copulation.

The cringe-worthy sexual behaviors of bed bugs involve traumatic insemination, no courtship activities and, sometimes, incest.

Hummingbird mating involves using specialized courtship rituals, tail feathers that sing, and weaponized beaks.

It's not as simple as asking an orangutan to swipe right or left.

Chicken mating involves tidbitting, wing-flapping, a male waltz and the possibility of the female ejecting the male's sperm.

A monkey was recently seen performing sexual actions on the backs of female sika deer on Japan's Yakushima island.

Though nine-banded armadillos are solitary creatures, they do occasionally get together for some genital sniffing, tail wagging and clucking in order to have sex.

Everything scientists know about these bees' mating behaviors is based on anecdotal observations.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches can change physical characteristics to become lovers or fighters.

Male dark fishing spiders spontaneously die after sex — but their nutritious bodies provide fuel for their mates to have more offspring that are larger and healthier.

Mating in these strange-looking mollusks lasts for 2 to 3 hours, but it's unclear what exactly is going on during this time.