Year of Wild Sex

An eye-opening, unexpected year of animals' most intimate encounters.

It was a chance meeting with mating silverfish behind her bathroom cabinet that made biologist Julie Feinstein more curious about, well, the birds and the bees. How do other animals have sex? How do turtles do it? Or starfish without obvious sex organs? What about dangerous animals, like alligators? Or those historically associated with sex, like an oyster or a stork? What if all the animals that we see in zoos, TV ads, and children’s books, she wondered, had sex lives as seemingly strange as those of silverfish?

Feinstein’s humorous, accessible, and deeply researched text answers these and other questions on nature’s most surprising sexual behaviors, including firefly suitors bearing nutritious “nuptial gifts” and post-copulatory slug penis amputations. She raises an eyebrow at all the mammals—from goats to giraffes—that incorporate urine into courtship. She explains the complex interactions of amorous cockroaches and their equally complex genitalia. She laments that dyeing poison dart frog tadpoles sometimes commit cannibalism for a better shot at growing up and then, eventually, coupling up. In this little black book of animal sex, Feinstein guides readers through the year, drawing connections that illuminate the associations between animals’ mating behaviors and our monthly calendars. She details some animals’ peak bursts of activity, such as Atlantic white shrimp spawning in July, porcupines breeding in October, and bald eagles, decorators extraordinaires, working on their nests in December. Scorpions enter whimsically under the astrological sign of Scorpio in November, and when a holiday nears, she explains the mating nitty-gritty of species with deep cultural connections to a specific day, like New Year storks, Thanksgiving turkeys, or Christmas reindeer. Presenting a pair of animals for each month, Feinstein offers an entertaining and illuminating Noah’s ark and a year of wacky, unbelievable, truly wild sex.

Julie Feinstein retired as collections manager at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She writes the blog, Urban Wildlife Guide, and is the author of Field Guide to Urban Wildlife.