Matt Ridley at Literary Hub:
In all animals mating is a deal: one sex donates a few million sperm, the other a handful of eggs, the merger between which—unless a predator intervenes—will result in a brood of young. Win-win for the parents, genetically speaking. But there are few creatures that behave as if sex is a dull, simple or even mutually beneficial transaction and many that behave as if it is an event of transcendent emotional and aesthetic salience to be treated with reverence, suspicion, angst and quite a bit of violence.
In the case of Black Grouse the males dance and sing for hours every day for several exhausting months, selling their little packages of sperm as passionately and persuasively (and frequently) as they can. To prepare for the ordeal they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. They gather together in one spot, putting themselves at conspicuous risk of attack by hawks and forgoing opportunities to feed. They fight with deadly intent again and again, suffering significant injuries. As excitement builds they expand the bright red, swollen, fleshy combs over their eyes, covered with hundreds of tiny tentacles like vermillion sea anemones. The act of sexual congress itself, the consummation of the deal, takes seconds. The rest has taken months of practice and preparation and is elaborate, extravagant, exhausting and elegant. Why?
More here.
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