Animals can also be monogamous. In fact, many species seek a partner, just like humans. From small rodents to marine creatures.
Here are 5 species that seek partners and form families forever.
Gibbons (Hylobatidae)
Gibbons, primates native to the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand, are one of the most loyal species known so far.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), they mate for life and form families that remain together until the offspring grow up and become independent.
Moreover, they can spend long hours grooming each other, although little is known about their sexual life, and they reproduce sparingly in captivity.
Seahorse (Hippocampus ingens)
Seahorses are also extremely faithful.
Their bond is so strong that cases have been documented in which, after one’s death, the other remains by its side until it dies of hunger.
Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster)
These field rodents mainly inhabit prairies in the United States and Canada. Experts discovered that these animals are monogamous for a curious reason: they fell into traps in pairs.
Thus, it was found that they usually mate for life, unlike other similar rodent species, such as prairie dogs.
According to National Geographic, their ability to form bonds has been widely studied. In fact, they can even remember their partners after weeks without seeing each other, which may seem like an eternity to them.
Although scientists have found that they release dopamine and their brains have certain neurotransmitters related to emotional bonds, similar to humans, they do not rule out that their attachment may be more related to survival.
Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
Magellanic penguins are monogamous and return to the same mating partner every year.
The male usually arrives a little earlier during the mating season to make sure no other opportunistic penguin has taken over its burrow. The female can find her partner through his call. Penguins start arriving and mating in September, and egg-laying begins in October.
Magellanic penguins gather in huge nesting colonies during the breeding season along the coasts of the Falkland Islands, the southern tip of Chile, and Argentina. These colonies can reach up to 400,000 individuals.
Albatrosses (Diomedeidae)
Most albatrosses stay with the same breeding partner for life. Each year, adults return during the mating season to Taiaroa Head (New Zealand) to reunite with their partner or to find a new one.
Youthful albatrosses return after at least four years at sea to find a partner. They socialize in groups of potential partners, called gams, to learn the courtship language and impress with their displays.
They perfect their performances, which start as a kind of dance and then turn into a simplified but unique language between a pair, which they use to find each other each season.
Cover photo: Kat Paleckova
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