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RE:PRODUCTION - Portraits (2012)
A selection of 20 birds, mammals, reptiles,
amphibians, and sea creatures – all chosen because their
mating habits are so intrinsically fascinating, and, in so many
cases, because their behavior highlights our own.
Rather than try to illustrate the behavior
itself, each critter is offered as an iconic portrait, which plays
off the silhouette genre of drawing, and is elegantly ‘framed’
with a plaque showing Latin name and a bit of explanatory text.
Courtship behavior may encompass symbolic
gesture, dance or vocal performance, trickery, or assault. Most
males will fight one another for dominance and the right to mate,
but it’s usually a ‘gentleman’s duel’, not
a fight to the death. Even rattlesnakes will do a ‘combat
dance’ rather than use their venom.
Three competing instincts - to flee,
to fight, to mate – may be in play. For males, promiscuity
pays, especially in species where the female is capable of raising
the young on her own. Males are liberal with their sperm, and
females are captive to the offspring. For the female, it pays
to pick the fittest partner, whether for food, defense, or help
raising the young.
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