By Susan Milius
Even with no female in sight, peacocks sometimes give the distinctive copulation call they hoot during the final rush toward a female.
A male’s solo shriek may be a bit of stagey deception that attracts distant females to check him out, says Roslyn Dakin of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Animals that whoop and crow when mating intrigue biologists with the possibility that loud noises offer some benefit, such as advertising fertility, social rank or just success in courtship.