Finding love can be difficult. But when you’re bemoaning your own love difficulties, spare a thought for the giraffe. Giraffes don’t go into heat like cats or dogs, don’t have a breeding season, don’t make mating calls and don’t give visual clues that they’re ready to mate. So how do giraffes find partners?

It’s kind of gross, but this is how baby giraffes are made: a male giraffe — called a bull — nudges a nearby female giraffe — a cow — and sniffs her genitalia. Sometimes he has to nudge her a few times, but eventually the female giraffe widens her stance and urinates for about five seconds into the male giraffe’s mouth.

The male giraffe then performs what’s known as a “flehmen response” by curling back its upper lip, baring its teeth, and breathing in with its nostrils closed for several seconds. (The name comes from a German word for baring the teeth.) The flehmen response is also used by animals like horses and goats to transfer scents to the vomeronasal organ above the roof of their mouth, a very sensitive component of their sense of smell.

more at livescience.com

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