A Fatal Sex Encounter; Weird Mating Rituals In Animals Found In Australian Sea

Mating is the very means of survival of an animal species, and animals know that very well. The weird mating rituals in animals, which sometimes can be fatal, are a proof of the fact that some animals can do anything they need to reproduce. One such weird example is the male argonaut octopus, which sacrifices its limb to get chance to fertilize the eggs of a much larger female argonaut and then dies shortly after.

The argonauts are a species of octopus, which usually inhabits in open oceans. The mating between the male and female argonauts is a not so romantic encounter, which leads to the death of the male octopus. The male argonauts are tiny while the females can be as large as a football.

The mating starts off when the male brushes past the female, during which his third left arm (the largest of the eight) breaks off. After breaking apart, it crawls like a caterpillar and enters into the mantle cavity of the female octopus.

The male octopus cannot survive without his strong arm, which helps to fend for himself. Thus, it dies shortly after the sexual encounter. This once in a lifetime yet horrible mating ritual sounds weird to human, but somehow argonauts have stuck to it for millions of years and it seems it works for them just fine, The Age reported.

The life and weird mating rituals in animals, especially of sea dwellers is a mystery for scientists. Sharks and dolphins have been studied intensively and much has been known about them. But other mystical creatures such as the octopuses and squids are often ignored. Many deep-sea creatures that have not been studied till now are classified as monsters. They only make the headlines, when some fisherman catches them by accident and posts a picture of them online on Twitter, with a hashtag, #sea monster.

According to The Conversation, experts are of the opinion that calling deep-sea creatures as monsters deter the implementation of suitable conservation strategies for their preservation and may lead to their complete extinction in a few decades.