I don’t want to draw any analogies here, but nature.com reports that
Male spiders that saunter onto a female’s web after a rival has spent hours wooing her can quickly copulate without being prematurely eaten by the female. This tactic could lead to small spider suitors seeking out competition with larger rival spiders rather than avoiding it, Canadian researchers say.
Um, thanks (?) to 3QuarksDaily for that link.
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October 22, 2009 at 7:36 pm
If you’re really interested in topics like this, I took an entire class (Behavioral Ecology) that dealt primarily with topics like this. I would be more than happy to enlighten you further…
I’m almost entirely certain that’s not the point you’re trying to make here – I have a feeling you’re trying to do whatever the opposite of anthropormorphizing is (if there is a word for that?) – but the way that animals find to promote their own reproductive success can be quite fascinating.
October 23, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Speaking of ways animals promote their reproductive success:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8318000/8318182.stm
October 24, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I didn’t really have a point, just thought it was interesting. But yes, I can see why it would sound like I was reverse-anthropomorphizing.
Thanks for the video link. Great footage.