Articles & Resources

Animals In Love
By Anne Wilkinson, Environmental Educator

We've all heard the song: "Love is in the air / everywhere I look around". In February, we can easily see the "love" for sale around us in red hearts, roses and chocolate boxes in all of the stores. Simple ways for us to show our feelings to those we love.

But if we take a look at the wider world around us, one might see that we humans are not the only ones showing "love" at this time of year. Dozens of animals are (or have already started) mating in February.

Our local feathered friends, Red Tailed Hawks, will likely be sitting on their clutches of eggs by the end of February, with chicks hatching about a month later. The courtship of a Red Tailed Hawk is a dramatic aerial display by the male of dives and spins, who then locks talons with the female as they spin to the ground. Once they have found a mate, Red Tailed Hawks mate for life.
Great Horned Owls are believed to also mate for life, and their courtship can start as early as November with the owls calling to each other at night. Great Horned Owls are one of the earliest nesters, laying eggs in late January that hatch about a month later.

Many of our local mammals are mating in the early winter, too. Here at the Nature Center, we have seen squirrels doing a lot of courtship "fighting" as they are looking for mates - usually mating between January and February. The mama squirrel is then left to care for the babies by herself.
Beavers, a mate-for-life animal, mate in February or March, and give birth between April and June. Beaver kits are born with their eyes open, and start swimming within 24 hours! The kits stay with their parents for up to two years, finding their own mates around age three.

Black Bears (making a Connecticut comeback) give birth in February, having mated in the fall. If you happen to stumble across a mama bear with her cubs, remember to give her a wide berth!
Spring Peeper frogs, a perennial harbinger of spring, start their "peeping" mating call sometime in March, and the females will eventually lay up to 900 eggs. Spring Peepers are nocturnal, so they are more often heard than seen. That loud peeping comes from a surprisingly small animal - peepers are only one and a half inches long - at the most!

Enjoy all of nature's displays of love this month; for, as Gandhi said, "Where there is love there is life."