mating

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Tilting Head Boosts Your Attractiveness
 Tilting Head Boosts 
 Your Attractiveness 
study says

Tilting Head Boosts Your Attractiveness

Women should try to look shorter, men taller

(Newser) - How attractive you look might have a lot to do with how you tilt your head. According to a new study, women appear more comely if they tilt their faces forward so that they have to look slightly upward, while men earn higher marks if they lean their heads back...

Male Brains Take 'Milliseconds' to Choose a Mate

Women concentrate harder, deliberate more

(Newser) - Men take only milliseconds to determine a woman's mating compatibility, but for women it's a more complex process, according to a new study. Male genetic programming is responsible for this almost instantaneous decision-making, Dutch researchers say. In testing gender biases, groups were assigned tasks while shown photos of the opposite...

Ugly Fish Have Stronger Sperm

Pretty boys get the girl first and still finish last

(Newser) - Pretty, colorful guppy guys may get all the ladies, but ugly guppies have “better sperm,” researchers concluded in a recent study. The group watched tropical guppies, and concluded that the colorful men had to “invest” in their beauty at the expense of slowing down their sperm. That's...

Stressed Men Go for Novelty in Sex Partners

Men suddenly choose women who don't look like them

(Newser) - Men who are under stress choose different women as sex partners than they do under normal circumstances, a new study shows. Men tend to be attracted to women whose facial features are like their own, but if stress is added to the equation, they flip to females who don’t...

Pair of British Swans Gets Rare 'Divorce'

The birds usually mate for life, but not this time

(Newser) - A pair of British swans has done the unthinkable for the loyal species, which usually mate for life: It split up. Sarindi and Saruni had been together for two years, but both returned to an English bird sanctuary from their annual Arctic migration with brand new partners. It's only the...

Hooker Crabs Swap Sex for Safety
 Hooker Crabs 
 Swap Sex for Safety 
SEEDY CRUSTACEANS

Hooker Crabs Swap Sex for Safety

Male crabs rewarded with sex for defending neighbors

(Newser) - Selling sex is the key to survival in the seedy world of fiddler crabs, according to Australian researchers. Scientists studying the burrow-dwelling, highly territorial creatures found that male fiddler crabs fought off intruders to protect female neighbors—who lack the male's huge claw—far more often than they would aid...

Pandas Haven't Bounced Back From China Quake

Sichuan disaster presents lasting difficulties for breeders

(Newser) - China’s efforts to save the giant panda from extinction haven’t recovered from last year’s earthquake in Sichuan province, AFP reports. The temblor swallowed up whole groves of bamboo, causing a food shortage just as breeding centers, whose efforts have caused a recent panda “baby boom,”...

Salamanders Get Help Crossing the Road

To mate! With some help from human friends

(Newser) - Salamanders are getting an assist this mating season from volunteers who shepherd them across dangerous highways, the AP reports. Hundreds try to cross between forests and vernal pools this time of year, and human escorts—also known as bucket brigades—have popped up along the East Coast to keep them...

Audio Stimulus Gets Cheetahs to Mate

Man-altered bioacoustics work as an aphrodisiac for cheetahs

(Newser) - Man’s ingenuity has altered nature’s rhythms for the better at the San Diego Zoo, where an African cheetah cub was born after zookeepers helped her dad turn on her mom, the North Country Times reports. Park scientists used bioacoustics—human-altered animal sounds—to stimulate mating after they discovered...

Panda Lovin' Leaves DC Zoo Wanting
Panda Lovin' Leaves DC Zoo Wanting

Panda Lovin' Leaves DC Zoo Wanting

Bears fail again at 'competent mating'; keepers help out

(Newser) - A romantic day in the park amid inaugural hubbub wasn’t enough to propagate the genes of two famous pandas at Washington’s National Zoo, the Washington Post reports. The pair had given mating calls, prompting hopes for the conception of a new member of the endangered species, which is...

Mating Calls Bare More Than Desire
Mating Calls Bare More
Than Desire

Mating Calls Bare More Than Desire

Courtship 'song' of desert creatures conveys complex info

(Newser) - Like human songs, animal calls are said to spur courtship, but what exactly does each wail and snort signify? To find out, a pair of Tel Aviv zoologists studied the mating songs of furry little rock hyraxes in the Judean desert. The researchers found that male hyrax courtship "songs"...

Mating Antelope Show Off Knees. Seriously.

Sound communicates animal's strength, prevents conflict

(Newser) - Doesn't sound all that sexy, but Africa’s male eland antelope has developed his own way of demonstrating its sexual prowess and warding off rivals. Males click their knees to establish mating rights and avoid brawls: the louder the click, the larger the animal, and the more likely he is...

Americans Seek Immune Genes in Mates: Study

Nigerians don't marry for DNA diversity, but may not need to

(Newser) - Americans pick mates with different immune genes while Africans prefer the genes they already have, New Scientist reports. A study of 60 couples from Utah and Nigeria showed that the Americans hitched up with partners whose genes recognized pathogens that theirs couldn't. The African marriages, however, appeared to be genetically...

Stories 21 - 33 | << Prev