Passionate

In the Pacific, the quest to multiply has spawned a stunning array of unusual behaviors and adaptations. There are forest penguins with a tenuous marriage, the secret rendezvous of great white sharks, and the tale of male pregnancy.

In the Pacific, the quest to multiply has spawned a stunning array of unusual behaviors and adaptations. There are forest penguins with a tenuous marriage, the secret rendezvous of great white sharks, and the tale of male pregnancy.

Yellow-eyed penguins care for their young together. Nesting in the dense New Zealand forest, the pair will take turns fishing so one parent is always watching over their chicks. But when the breeding season ends and the offspring leave, the partnership will dissolve – until the next mating season.

For some life in the big Pacific, mating can be the kiss of death: Along the California coastline sea otters’ courtship is a wrestling match with no holds barred and females can be drowned in the process.

A mass spawning event happens on an empty shoreline high in the Gulf of California: the grunion run. Thousands of silvery bodies flicker in the shallows in an explosion of life and death. No other fish spawns so boldly, in the open air, under blazing sun. This is a tidal wave of reproduction.