Without sex, life on earth wouldn't have been so diverse.

Animals do it too, and some guys get their heads bitten off for all their trouble

Story and pictures by SMITH SUTIBUT

It doesn't matter whether love exists in their world or not, animals still make love. And their ``love scenes'' _ which play a crucial role in the survival of the species _ can be as entertaining as those you've seen in Hollywood films.

A lot of people might not feel like visiting natural sites during the rainy season like this, yet it's a very good time to watch some of the animals ``do it''.

These following places are examples of where you can go to take a peek at animals in love.


THE WATERSIDE

Streams, ponds, lakes and other watery habitats serve as nurseries as well as foraging and nesting grounds for a variety of creatures. Many animals, especially tiny insects, also mate at these places. However, you've got to do a little bit of searching through the vegetation to find their secret love spots.

The normal love-making position for most insects is for the male to mount the back of the female. Butterflies, on the other hand, copulate with both partners turning their backs to each other, but still connected at their rear ends.

One of the most spectacular mating rituals among insects is that of the damselflies. Having found the right lady, a male damselfly curls up his elongated abdomen to relocate the sperm packet from the opening at the end of the abdomen to the underside of his thorax.

All set, he flies to her and catches her with his legs in mid-air. Then he grabs her back with claspers at the tip of his abdomen and frees his legs. At this point, the female curls up her abdomen so that the reproductive opening at its end reaches the male's thorax and collects the sperm he has placed there.

In doing so, the bodies of the coupling damselflies are linked together in the shape of a heart.

After her eggs are fertilised, the female shakes herself loose from the male's grasp and flies around just above water's surface in search of suitable plant stems to deposit the eggs. Often the male refuses to let go and the pair fly about in tandem.

But not all love scenes are that romantic.

In certain species, getting laid sometimes means getting killed. The praying mantis is a case in point. For a male mantis, stealth and speed are key to safe sex _ because if he's not quick enough, he's going to be eaten alive by his voracious and stronger partner.

Still, as far as reproduction is concerned, death doesn't seem like much of a problem. Even if the male's head is bitten off, the rest of his body will continue pumping sperm into the female's body.

Even though they're not insects, males of some spiders have to take similar risks. Before a mating attempt, a male spider needs to present his bride-to-be with a food gift wrapped in silk. This is to make sure he will have enough time to do his job while she is busy with the offering.

Female spiders are often several times larger than the males and they like to look at their mating partners as food.

Still the mantis and the spider can be considered lucky compared to male bees. Fertilising a new queen is its only mission in life: a male bee, or drone, has no chance of survival after completing the task. Once he backs off from her, his reproductive organ, together with his guts, is stripped from his body.

But the dead drone has done his job anyway, and the queen bee mates only once in her life.

Other than insects, the waterside is also a good location for amphibian love scenes.

After rains, ponds and other water bodies are often flooded with a chorus of frog mating calls. The loud croaks are made by males trying to impress the females of their species.

A female frog is usually larger than its male partner, so much so that sometimes a copulating male is mistaken for a baby frog riding on its mother's back.

And since frogs fertilise their eggs externally, it's no surprise that sometimes you see several of them engaged in mating orgies _ with several males trying to release their sperm onto the eggs a female has laid.


THE OPEN FIELD

This is a good place to look for bird love scenes, and that's because birds that live in farmlands near human settlements, unlike forest-dwelling species, tend to be more at ease with human presence.

Actually, birds' love affairs begin in the hot season so that by the time the chicks hatch, it will be the rainy season when food is more abundant.

But birds that have adapted to life in human environments are exceptions. The Eurasian tree sparrow, for instance, tends to mate and have chicks the whole year round. It seems they're becoming more and more like people.

Generally, bird love scenes are pretty much the same: the male positions itself on the back of the female. Yet, the really fascinating thing is the courtship behaviour which varies from one species to the next.

Take the Baya weaver, for example. The male weaver needs to prove his worthiness to his potential mate by inviting her to the nest he has patiently built. Only if the female is satisfied with his craftsmanship will she let him show her his other skills.

As for waterbirds, their romantic encounters happen pretty late, around the end of the rainy season when ponds and lakes are brimming and aquatic vegetation has grown enough to provide cover for their secret affairs. To watch these birds during their mating period, you had better hide yourself in a blind, otherwise they might be turned off if they know someone is watching. And the possible conse quence of such an interruption could be that there would be no new chicks that year.

However, some waterbirds _ like the Asian openbill, the black-crowned night-heron and the great cormorant _ prefer to nest in trees in large colonies. At some sites, these birds are so used to people you can watch them at close range. Yet their love-making is not always easy to spot since it could be over before you even realise it's begun. It pays to be patient, though.


THE FOREST

It's true that rain brings life to the forest, yet for mammals that have long gestation periods, love scenes take place in the dry season before that. Their reproduction is so timed to ensure that their young will enter the world when it is rainy and full of food.

Still, even if we have some idea of what time of year wildlife mate, the chance of viewing these extremely shy animals as they do their private business depends largely on luck.

Actually, the love-making position of most wild mammals, be they deer, gaurs or even elephants, are no different than that of cattle _ the male mounts the back of the female. Still, if you happen to see such behaviour in the forest, you can consider yourself lucky.

Stumbling on the steamy moments of certain animals may be plain bad luck. The cobra is one such dangerous animal. Copulating cobras twist their bodies around each other, with the male's genital inserted into the female's reproductive opening. At such an extremely private time, the male snake can be very aggressive and will not hesitate to attack interrupters.


THE CITY

It's true there's not much trace of nature left in urban environments, yet don't forget the pets we keep descend from forest-dwelling ancestors.

Cats are a good example of domestic animals that still maintain much of their wild instincts. So despite all those loud noises the tomcats make when they're in heat and fighting one another to win a female, their actual love scene is pretty secretive.

Unlike cats, dogs tend to be bolder when it comes to sex. An estrus female announces her desire by sending out pheromones that draw hordes of males to follow her and fight over her.

The winner will mount her back and after getting connected, the male turns around so that each faces in the opposite direction but is not yet detached from the other.

This scene may tickle some but at the same time offend others. There are even people who can't stand it and have to splash water on the dogs to force them to separate.

The irony is that while humans seem to find this natural behaviour unacceptable most of the time, we sometimes try to make them do it against their will.

Remember the elephant wedding held in Ayutthaya province several months ago? It turned out one of the bull elephants got a crush on another female instead of the one set up for him. And he mated with the bride he chose in front of excited tourists and cameramen.

The next morning the photo of the jumbo's love scene appeared on the front page of a newspaper. And guess what? In that photo, there was a dark stripe added to cover the penis of the animal.