The zoo and aquarium keepers meet each year to work out the finer details of matching one animal to another. Once a match is made, zoos begin the gymnastics of moving animals to their prospective mates, a process that can take a half-year. We're not talking candlelight dinners. But each species has its own way of getting ready. With giraffes, for example, foreplay takes a week and involves a curious nudging of legs.
Kingfishers help prepare their hollowed log together.
Sometimes the best laid nest doesn't create a spark. A few years back, the Philadelphia Zoo had three golden-headed tamarins , cute and extremely spunky monkeys with a sunburst of fur around their faces. The female died, leaving Gulliver, a wild-born male who is now about 10 years old, and Molson, a native of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Nana arrived last October from the San Antonio Zoo to mate with Gulliver, and Boa came in December. The staff at the Philadelphia Zoo have logged in reports that Nana and Gulliver have copulated twice, but nothing more.