By Jack Keller 

Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day, but is that a good thing? Whether you’ve got someone special to spend the day with, or even if you resent Hallmark’s catalyzation of the holiday, I think we can all agree that Valentine’s Day has gotten a bit out of hand—it creates so much unnecessary stress. 

Unimpeded by crowded restaurants, dried-out roses, and general loneliness; Valentine’s Day serves as a celebration of love and connections. 

At Friends of Animals, we tend to turn to the natural world for guidance when humanity becomes confusing (as it often does), and who provides better reminded of why we love to love than animals? 

To brighten your Valentine’s Day, I’ve compiled some of my favorite animal romances below. 

Wolves 

Grey wolf families are led by a couple: an alpha male and an alpha female. These top dogs are typically the only two allowed to breed, producing a new litter every year to ensure familial stability. Researchers suspect that the monogamous nature of their relationship makes it easier for the alphas to display their strength and superiority over other members of their group. I’d only known of ‘alpha males’ prior to this research and reveled in learning that moms are just as influential. 

Gibbons 

Gibbon couples enjoy serenading each other. Individual gibbons have their own mating calls, their own songs. When they pair up, they begin to combine these songs into a single, cohesive, well-coordinated ‘duet’ that becomes intrinsic to their relationship. The duet is performed during intimate moments, like mutual grooming. They also sing to each other when the male ventures away from their home, to ensure he doesn’t stray too far. 

Swans 

Swans mate for life. They’re unique in the sense that they often form these romantic bonds long before reaching sexual maturity. They’re the high school sweethearts of the natural world. Swans begin breeding anywhere between ages 4-7, but it’s not uncommon for them to have met their mate years prior—sometimes as young as at 20 months old. These relationships are strong. Swan couples stay by each other’s side year-round as they migrate together. Interestingly, about a fifth of swan pairings are same-sex, and same-sex swan couples are proven to be more significantly more successful in raising their young. These pairings are opportunistic and will steal an egg from a neighboring nest. They both pitch in to the nest building and egg incubating efforts. Talk about a healthy relationship. 

Black Vultures 

In birds, monogamy is the norm, and black vultures are no exception. In black vulture couples, both parents share egg incubation duties. They break these up into 24-hour shifts. What makes monogamy in black vultures unique, however, is how it’s carried out. If one of the partners is caught courting other vultures or philandering in public, the rest of the flock will retaliate with an attack, forcing the unfaithful vulture to shamefully return to their marital nest—not something we typically see in humans. This helps deter future non-monogamous behaviors. 

Gentoo Penguins 

While swans never separate, gentoo penguins are only together for about a month out of the year. Maybe this is as long as they can stand to be together? Gentoo penguins are the long-distance daters of the animal kingdom. The couples generally get together to breed year after year. When this happens, the male gentoo takes the time to woo his mate—he presents her with a pebble. If she says yes, they put a ring on it and begin to build their nest together. Infidelity in gentoo culture results in banishment from the colony, which may as well be a death sentence. 

Cockroaches 

Cockroaches are a completely monogamous species. They don’t write movies about this love story, however. After finding partners, roaches spend the rest of their lives living in rotten wood, so they have no opportunities to find new mates. This happens around the time when they bite off their partner’s wings. What’s more romantic than crippling your own ambitions to be stuck with someone you once loved?  

Coppery Titi Monkeys 

Only 3-5% of mammals practice some form of monogamy. Interestingly, about 29% of primates are socially monogamous, meaning they move through life together as partners, although they’re not necessarily sexually monogamous. This describes coppery titi monkey relationships aptly. The ‘situationships’ of the animal kingdom. They stay by their partners side for years and raise their young. Studies show coppery titi monkeys exhibit signs of stress when separated from their partners—maybe labels are worth something after all? 

Termites 

Termite couples have been known to stay together for 20 years. But occasionally, they’ll wake up and realize they’re living a lie—a study in the journal Nature found that divorces can happen if a more suitable partner comes along. Treat your partners well, termites. 

Coyotes 

Coyotes are interesting because of how quickly they’ve evolved to cohabitate urban environments with humans. There’s still so much we’re finding out about urban coyote lifestyles. But in a 2012 study conducted by Ohio State University, it was found that 100% of urban coyotes that were studied over a six-year period were monogamous. Despite all the opportunities for coyotes to find new mates, they never strayed from their partners. Once country, now urban, coyotes are thriving.  

Angler Fish 

Male angler fishes are 10x smaller than females. When these short kings find a mate, they’ll latch on to her. Over time, the male’s body will permanently fuse to the female’s where he’ll be able to provide her with sperm-on-demand for the rest of their lives. I’m starting to get queasy. The male will simply dangle off the side of his partner like an appendage. We don’t have a label for this one, but it kind of sounds like my cousin’s boyfriend. 

Bonobos 

Bonobos live in a fully matriarchal society. Female bonobos have been shown to band together to fight off male aggression. Adding to the fervor, these bonobos are rarely united by blood—they leave their birthplaces and find social groups to join, so they’re united to cooperate by nothing more than friendship. It’s a good thing they’re not related. They’re an entirely fluid society meaning that everyone is bisexual, and about 60% of sexual encounters are female-female. It’s believed that bonobos use sex as a way of avoiding conflict. Anything that piques a bonobos interest will almost certainly lead to sex.  

Seahorses 

While seahorses, generally, are lauded for their promiscuity (they’re often referred to as the “swingers of the sea”), some seahorse species mate for life. The Australian seahorse is one, and they’re known for keeping their relationship fresh. They adorably greet each other every morning with a special dance that entails changing colors as a way of reinforcing their bond. It can be tough to get as much as a “good morning” out of our human partners! Take notes. 

Mantis Shrimp 

Mantis shrimp couples live in the warm shallows of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Here, too, is the venus flower basket, a sea sponge that leaves behind a silica skeleton after it dies. Mantis shrimp couples enter these “glass houses” when they’re still young and start a family. One of the remaining believers in the American dream, the shrimp parents will soon be too big to get out of the house. The offspring are still small enough to leave and begin their lives, but mom and dad are stuck there forever, wondering why nobody ever comes to visit.  

Layson Albatross 

The layson albatross nests in Hawaii’s northern islands. Like most avian species, they mate for life. What’s interesting about the layson albatross, however, is that nearly a third of these are two females.  These albatrosses court each other with elaborate dances that can entail 25 ritualized movements. Clearly, they’re not easy to impress. Once they’re woo’d, though, they’ll begin to successfully raise chicks year after year. 
 

Jack Keller is the communications assistant for Friends of Animals