Jim Gill (WPR)
Almost every creature on the planet has sex, and when you consider the sheer variety of different mating behaviors and rituals in the natural world, it’s hard not to feel grateful. The hoops humans have to jump through to find a mate pale in comparison to what other species contend with: post-coital cannibalism, detachable sexual organs, or traumatic insemination, just to name a few.
Biologist Carin Bondar has devoted her career to exploring the myriad ways animals mate in the wild, and shared a few of the ingenious ways animals find each other, breed, and rear offspring.
This episode was produced in partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature, an organization that brings together scholars from a diversity of disciplines to think creatively about our relationships with nature and each other. What do you think evolution can tell us about love and morality? Share your thoughts at humansandnature.org. This episode was made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation.