We all love to receive gifts, especially if they are something that we always wanted. But if you thought that the idea of giving gifts was restricted to humans, you might be wrong. Gift giving and receiving is very much a part of the animal world as well and it is mostly used to win the affections of the opposite gender.
From arachnids to elegant birds, there are many members of the animal kingdom who love to give presents in order to gain more importance in the eyes of their loved one. Some, like the male grasshopper, are even ready to lay their life down for the female, who might devour the father grasshopper!
Small gifts of love
One of the most remarkable nuptial gifts, though, is that which is given by the South American species of spider called Paratrechalea ornate. The male spiders of this species have been seen to present the female with a neatly wrapped morsel of prey. The wrapping is spider silk and it is given to the female in the hope that she will accept the gift and the male spider as her husband!
To ensure that the female spider is truly attracted to this male, the spiders even tend to incorporate a chemical known as pheromone into their silk gift wrap, says arachnid expert Dr Luiz Costa-Schmidt.
But P ornate are not the only spiders spinning the web of attraction by gifting. The male nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) does a similar presentation to win the affection of the ladies. What is interesting to note is that the gifts might hold many surprises.
Sometimes when spiders do not have an enticing piece of ant leg or fly to give to the female, they wrap old ant wings or just broken leaves and gift them to the females anyway. It is after all the gesture that counts, even in the creepy crawly world!
Male fruit flies have a much weirder choice of gifts, which may not sound appetising at all. The individuals of this species (Drosophila subobscura) simply bring out what they have eaten and present the nutritious mix to their would-be partners. It may seem a very disgusting gift to us, but for these tiny flies, it is a way to show how healthy or fit these males are.
When it is a question of choosing a potential partner, insects can be as choosy as human beings. Dr Karim Vahed from the University of Derby, who has been studying this particular gift giving behaviour in crickets, found that the saddle-backed bush cricket (Uromenus rugosicollis) spent up to 104 minutes assessing a female before presenting its gift.
Gifting among flying friends
A valued token of affection for the beautiful kingfishers is obviously a king-sized fish. Females of this bird family though are quite fussy about the size of fish they are offered by the males.
They usually ignore a male kingfisher who offers a small fish. There is a proper way to present the fish — the males swallow it whole and then offer it head first to the ladies!
Male bowerbirds on the other hand rely not on food but on their designing skills to woo mates. They build complex nests with bones, pebbles and shells. Females which breed only once a year tour their neighbourhoods inspecting the males’ creations and choosing the most talented architect.
But who gifts poison to a loved one? Flying in daytime and spectacularly conspicuous to predators, six-spot burnet moths have evolved to release cyanide when injured. Cyanide isn’t easy to produce as it requires intensive nutrient and energy investments. But the male moths willingly gift the poison to females so that they can use it in their own defence.
Thus the art of gift giving exists in varied ways in the animal kingdom too and it is not about giving chocolates or flowers but food that seems to be the most popular choice.