On Valentine's Day, lovers who are eager to woo their partners show their affection with traditional gifts of red roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates or romantic dinners at fancy restaurants. But why settle for easier and safer options when you can go really wild? BBC Earth has collected a few examples of unusual and extreme courtship rituals in the animal kingdom.
Female spiders eat the males after mating because collecting life insurance is easier than collecting child support.
It's not just kittehs that love captions! ALL THE ANIMALS DO! Check out Animal Capshunz for MOAR!
It's a terribly complex dance, all polyrhythms and syncopated patterns, but we've been practicing and performing it our whole lives, so I assure you we can impress you with its intricacies. And to think, mother told me I'd never do more than eat pinkening plankton!
