Birds Do It, Bees Do It

2/22/2026

There are three elements to this that, for me at any rate, were unique to watch. The first shows us how the female praying mantis quite literally snogs the face off her lover as they make his only baby. The second illustrates the most bizarre duel between a wasp and a tarantula - and to the victor goes the body of the loser for use as a living larder whilst it’s larva grows. Finally, there is the tiniest of kangaroo foetuses precariously crawling from uterus to pouch where it must complete it’s gestation. Rarely can photography have captured such scenes of violence and vulnerability, even by today’s standards. These show natural history film-making at it’s finest and epitomise so much of the rest of this feature as it takes us on a tour of the breeding habits of everything from some somewh