"There was a time when myth and science were entwined" "When mermaids and unicorns could mysteriously appear" "Nature was weird" "When science revealed the truth behind these imaginary creatures it found real animals lay behind the legends" "Today, science still makes astonishing discoveries but nature seems just as weird" "It's just that fact has broken free from fiction" "Many dances are stylized forms of courtship" "Scorpions dance for the same seductive reason" "But a Spanish scorpion must court with care as he takes her by the claws he fends off her sting with his tail" "Rejection now would be fatal" "He keeps up her interest by sweeping her off her feet" "The dance may last for hours as he tries to put her into a receptive mood" "He seals his proposal with a kiss" "It stops him becoming a meal" "Next he offers a present" "He leaves a package to fertilize her eggs on the tip of a stalk" "He guides her to pick up the gift, leaving just the stalk behind" "This weird journey explores many other strange aspects of nature's ways of breeding" "In courtship, gifts are always appreciated" "The Satin bowerbird of Australia has an eye for the presents his partner adores" "Her favorite color is blue" "This is not his nest, but a bower a place of seduction" "He must keep up its maintanence to impress any females that call" "She visits all the bowers in her neighborhood to judge each male on his home decorating skills" "She is hard to impress" "An experienced male won't accept rejection lightly" "He just works harder at winning her over" "The more blue trinkets he accumulates the more he turns her eye" "His interest in home decoration is purely biological" "The harder he works, the more he proves his fitness" "He has amassed the bowerbird's equivalent of wealth a proof of his genetic worth" "And this bird has a lot on show" "On this occasion, a ring seems appropriate and it seems to be doing the trick" "We may see human parallels in the bowerbird's courtship" "But biologically, our behavior is stranger" "We are one of the most sexually active of all mammals but we are also one of the least fertile" "And few animals have such a long courtship or mate throughout the year" "But by any measure, this marsupial mouse is weird" "Antechinus squeezes its bouts of passion into a few energetic days" "In early spring, the male's only goal is to mate with as many partners as possible" "Each session lasts several hours and as soon as it ends, he looks for a new partner" "He aims to track down every female in the neighborhood" "Subtlety is not his forte" "All this activity leaves him little time to eat, drink or sleep" "And in time, the stress starts to wear him down" "Although exhausted, rampant hormones urge him on to yet another encounter" "But he's feeling the strain" "Over the two-week breeding season, he ages a lifetime" "Run down and tired, he is literally on his last legs" "All the males are soon gone, leaving the females to bring up the babies" "His sacrifice makes genetic sense, more offspring will survive if he isn't there to compete for food" "Male mice may cause their own demise" "But in the meadows of southern France it's the female that's the deadlier of the species" "The femme fatale in question is the European praying mantis" "The smaller male courts his partner carefully" "She can literally make a meal of any male" "But he has to mate to pass on his genes" "In this gruesome embrace, her love bite is the last thing he knows" "But even this trauma doesn't seem to unnerve him he continues to mate as though nothing has happened" "Losing his head over a female helps nourish his future offspring" "Astonishingly, decapitation even improves his performance" "A tiny brain in his rear keeps him active" "This macabre coupling can last a day" "Even then, the discarded carcass doesn't give up readily" "In the oceans, courtship is even more complicated" "It is a world of sexual confusion and gender bending" "One of the commonest reef fish Anthias" "They gather in shoals many hundred strong" "Oddly, most of them are female" "They can be identified by their violet eyebrow line and orange color" "The few males are purple with a plumelike fin on their back" "Should the male be removed, something strange happens" "The leading lady takes over his role, literally" "Her sexuality is flexible" "She can perform a quick sex change to take his place" "Not only does her color and appearance change she becomes he by developing male sex organs as well" "It takes less than a week for this lady to become a fully functioning gent" "Gender bending is also a speciality of sea hares" "Like other sea slugs, sea hares are bisexual" "Their hind quarters are female and their head ends are male" "Their sexual orientation depends on which ends meet first" "When several sea hares get together, they often form a mating chain" "The front slug has to be female, but those in the middle mate both ways and the last sea slug is always male" "If the leader turns and joins the end of the chain, a bisexual wheel forms" "Birth inevitably follows mating" "For some, bubbles hold the secret of child care" "These Thai men are experts on breeding Siamese fighting fish" "Traditionally, bets are placed on contest between their prize specimens" "Such fights occur naturally in nearby lakes and rivers" "In either place, the winner gains the female and a chance to show a more tender side to his nature" "An egg-like marking on her belly shows she's ready to breed a come-on for the male to start courtship" "He then does something reminiscent of a child's game" "He blows bubbles" "But he stops his bubbles popping by coating them with saliva" "Soon, a cluster of glistening bubbles starts to accumulate" "These will form a bubble nest for the care of his young" "Then his aggression returns" "But only to put her in the mood to accept his embrace" "He quickly siphons up the fertilized eggs" "then spits them into the bubbles" "This bubble wrapping protects them from predators or infection" "Two days later the fry hatch and start to feed from their egg sacs" "The fighting fish keeps up his vigil fry that stray are soon caught and return to the care of the bubble nest" "Caring for young by bubble wrapping them is popular in nature" "The praying mantis lathers up a foam of microscopic bubbles to cocoon her offspring" "The foam hardens into a protective case that casts her young" "Foam nesting frogs also get into a lather tending their young" "The mother secrets a fluid that the pair whip up into a foam similar to egg white" "She lays her fertilized eggs inside" "The outer wall of bubbles hardens like moraine and protects the eggs from predators, bacteria and the weather" "Three days later, the first of several hundred tadpoles emerge" "While some bubble wrap their young, others literally splash out on child care" "In the Amazon, splash tetras stage a leaping contest" "These strange fish out of water lay their eggs on leaves" "The males leap to inspect suitable sites" "They prefer protected leaves with a surface that's easy to stick to" "The leap requires perfect posture" "The fish must align itself so it grips the leaf by surface tension as it lands" "The male guards his chosen leaf until a female arrives" "The pair line up under the leaf and perform the ultimate act synchronised swimming" "As a cue, the female nudges the male with her head then a flick of their tails propels them in perfect unison" "They are so synchronized" "To the human eye, they appear as one" "The eggs are laid, but the male's work has just begun" "He must keep them wet until they hatch" "The splash tetra must have the most labor intensive of child care of any fish" "But his eggs are safer from predators on leaves rather than in the river" "After two days of hard splashing, the fry emerge" "The Surinam toad's version of parenting is even more eccentric" "Her young literally get under her skin" "They develop from eggs to tadpoles in a wad of skin on her back and emerge as fully formed toadlets" "Most toads lay hundreds of eggs and only a few survive" "Using skin care ensures that all the Surinam's offspring become baby toads" "Once free, they fend for themselves" "For some, parental care is the father's responsibility" "The African bullfrog is one such doting parent" "His tadpoles develop in shallow pools where he acts as their lifeguard" "But water is siphoned up by many thirsty creatures" "Faced with towering competition, the bullfrog retreats but as the water levels drop, he still remembers his offspring" "The sun also causes the precious water to vanish" "Soon the mud will be concrete hard" "His poor tadpoles are left high and dry" "They call to their father for help" "He reacts by digging an escape route" "It's a race against time" "He paddles away to soften the rock-hard earth as he digs a canal" "Their pleas for help urge him on" "Break through happens in a nick of time" "He leads his offspring to safety" "The bullfrog is one of the world's most devoted fathers but he has competition" "The Siberian dwarf hamster must win the prize for being nature's new man" "The male acts as midwife during his partner's labor" "Male midwifery is unique among mammals" "And even in humans, it's a recent development" "Biologically, human birthing behavior is strange" "Only humans have such painful and extended labor and few animals have such helpless young" "But like other mammals, human males traditionally stay away at the birth" "However the hamster's mate is her constant birth companion" "Russian hospitals still follow tradition and exclude fathers from the birth process" "But the hamster's partner shows a feminine care and concern" "He cleans each newborn baby in turn" "His human counterpart can only wait in the sidelines" "At birth, the hamster even cuts the umbilical cord with his teeth" "Traditionally, women continue to help once the birth is over" "Again, the male hamster takes on this caring role" "He retrieves any youngsters that wriggle from the nest" "In many countries, human fathers are now encouraged to attend birth" "But in Russia, old traditions die hard" "The hamster may be the only mammal that naturally acts like a new man" "But there's a catch, he soon reveals a less sensitive side" "His partner can only mate over the next three hours" "Helping at the birth stops him missing the moment" "But the dwarf hamster has a rival for his new age credentials" "Sea horses are the only animals in which the male actually becomes pregnant" "He carries his partner's eggs in a brood pouch on his stomach" "The pouch lining acts like a placenta and nourishes the developing young" "When the time comes to give birth, he even suffers contractions" "They become more violent as the birth approaches" "He gives birth to around 100 young" "Each is a miniature replica of their father" "Sea horses are the only animals whose males experience the birth process" "His young grips the nearest thing they can find, even each other" "He may be the spitting image of his father but from now on, he's on his own" "For sea horses, parental care stops at birth" "Extended child care is most common in mammals" "The Asian musk shrew has perhaps the oddest way of keeping her young in line" "Moving a large family between nests is a big responsibility" "To avoid getting lost, each youngster bites the fur by its neighbor's tail and hangs on tight" "To the young, it's a game of follow my leader" "Wherever their mother goes, they keep in step" "But if the mother becomes separated from her brood, the youngsters grab any moving thing that passes" "Their persistence of strength of grasp is phenomenal" "As long as the train keeps moving, they'll hold on tight" "even in the air" "Stop the train and they let go" "When the mother returns, order is restored to her chaotic brood" "She guides her daisy chain to safety" "Such care may seem odd but in a world of bizarre breeding, we are stranger" "No other animal tends its young for as long as us"