How animals in the concrete jungle are dating in the wild

Pandemic or not, animals are going to find a way to get down and procreate. Whether it’s a mountain lion braving a Southern California freeway to find a mate or snails looking for love, creatures are mating in the wild.

In some cases, by using some non-traditional methods. “The common garden snail is a hermaphrodite, which means it has both male and female sex organs,” says Lila Higgins in her book Wild L.A.

She’s the senior manager for community science at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and explains that, “when a pair comes together, each harpoons the other with a love dart, which introduces hormones to induce mating. To reproduce, they intertwine their bodies and extend their penises from behind their heads to exchange sperm. Mating can take anywhere between four and twelve hours.”