All creatures of nature, the British novelist Graham Swift once wrote, are joined for the express purpose of nature. And this is illustrated with charming detail and sometimes dizzying nature of sex.
Birds, bees, and even barnacles and naked mole rats are forced to join forces to reproduce and pass on their genes to the next generation. From the sea horse that fits into a hypnotic underwater ballet to the rodent who copulates until they literally drop dead, the nature of sex spreads around the world to illustrate how an astonishing diversity of life forms find their mates and conceive, raise and protect their young.
This Web companion to the four-part series takes a close look at the primal instinct that causes animals to come together to pass on their genes to the next generation. We also examined how time can be key in the mating process, and the variety of contracts for sex not only create a new life, but the diversity in both animals and humans.
