6 Animals That Eat Their Mates

Nature’s Terrifying Love Stories

We humans have various ideas about love, relationships, and mating. But in the animal kingdom, these relationships often take strange and horrific turns. In particular, there are some animals that kill and even eat their mating partners! Scientists call this sexual cannibalism – that is, one partner eating the other during or after mating.

Why does this happen?

Basically for energy and nutrition. Giving birth to a new life is a very difficult thing for any animal. So some female animals choose to kill and eat males for the extra strength of their body. This increases the chances of their offspring surviving.

Now let’s take a look at 6 animals that eat their partners.

Mantis – Beheading after love

The mantis insect is the most notorious for sexual cannibalism. Female mantis are much larger and stronger than males. They call males closer by releasing pheromones. But when the male tries to mate, disaster strikes. The female suddenly attacks and beheads the male.

The strange thing is that the male mantis can continue mating for a while even if he loses his head, because his nervous system mainly works from the stomach. In this way, the female mantis gets the necessary nutrition to lay her eggs on the one hand, and on the other hand, reproduction is also successful.

Some species can reproduce without a male through parthenogenesis, but even then the male is sometimes eaten. This is a terrible but effective strategy for nature.

Black Widow Spider – Trap in a web, then eat

Many have heard of the infamous Black Widow Spider. The female spider is huge, almost half the size of the male. The female builds a web mixed with pheromones. When the male spider comes close, sometimes he gets the opportunity to mate, sometimes he dies.

During mating, the male has to get close to the female spider’s fangs, which puts him in an ideal position to eat. Research shows that in the wild, black widow spiders rarely eat males, but in captivity, it is much more common.

Still, the name Black Widow is apt for them.

Jumping Spiders – Dance or Die

In this species, mating begins with dancing. The male jumping spider performs a strange dance to impress the female. He moves his legs, shakes his body, and even creates a kind of “music” through the vibrations of the ground.

The female spider can mate only once, so she takes a very selective partner. If she is impressed by the male’s dance, she survives and mating occurs. If not – the male ends up on the dinner plate!

This is a unique reality show – ”Dance or Die”!

Green Anaconda – Feast after the mating ball

The green anaconda is one of the largest snakes in the world. Their mating is quite peculiar. 10-12 males gather around a female snake. This is called a mating ball. This ball can last for about a month!

Female anacondas are much larger than males. During pregnancy, their movements are limited and require a lot of energy. Therefore, sometimes the female eats one or more males after mating. This gives her body extra nutrients, which is essential for giving birth to babies.

Strange but true – this difficult trick of nature helps to save future generations.

Scorpions – Deadly consequences after mating

The mating process of scorpions is quite complex. They perform a special dance, which is called promenade à deux. After mating, the female has to spend a lot of energy to give birth to babies – they give birth to up to 100 live babies.

To make up for this huge energy deficit, the female sometimes eats the male after mating. In this way, she gets the energy she needs to survive and her offspring.

In some cases, the mother scorpion even eats her own offspring – as a last resort.

Octopus – intelligent, yet cannibalistic

Octopuses are said to be the most intelligent creatures in the sea. They have a special arm, the hectocotylus, on their body, through which the male gives sperm to the female. When the job is done, the female octopus often eats the male.

Many species of male octopuses die soon after mating. So the female then eats them to gather nutrients and gain strength to protect the eggs.

Strangely, young octopus babies also sometimes eat each other. That means cannibalism is not at all unusual for them.

Why does this terrible behavior occur?

Scientists think that the main reason for this is energy conservation.

Females need a lot of energy to reproduce.

That energy can be replenished by eating the male.

This increases the chances of survival of both the mother and the offspring.

Although it seems cruel to us, it is a survival strategy in nature.

Nature’s Lesson

We humans may think of relationships in terms of love and care, but in the animal kingdom, love has a different meaning. There, survival and reproduction are the ultimate goals. And to fulfill this goal, love sometimes ends with a terrible feast.