The phoenix comes and sings in the sky. Why do Chinese people always regard the phoenix as the bird of love?

Phoenix

It is a sacred bird that symbolizes love.

It expresses people's yearning for loyal love

"The phoenix is ​​flying high, and the four seas are looking for it"

(The picture is for illustration only. The largest bird in the picture is the phoenix. The quote is from Sima Xiangru's "The Phoenix Seeks the Phoenix". There are male and female phoenixes: the male is called "phoenix" and the female is called "huang". The picture is from @Visual China)

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However, the Phoenix is ​​not just a romantic imagination.

The peacock and golden pheasant are its prototypes.

They all belong to the same family - pheasants

Possessing the appearance of a gorgeous feathery dress

Romantic and crazy about love

There is a sense of sadness like "The peacock flies southeast, and lingers every five miles"

(The quote is from the Yuefu poem "The Peacock Flies Southeast", which symbolizes the love tragedy of Liu Lanzhi and Jiao Zhongqing. Photographer @曾祥乐)

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There is also the feeling of longing for "A male pheasant is flying, its feathers are fluttering"

(Please watch in horizontal mode. The quote is from the Book of Songs. Some people think it was written by a woman who missed her husband who was away on military service. Photographer: Liu Lu)

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They wrote with their lives

The most amazing aspect of love in nature

(Brown-tailed rainbow pheasant [left], male blood pheasant [center] and female blood pheasant [right] appear together, photographer @刘璐)

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For love

They sing and dance

(Please watch in horizontal mode. The colorful colors, bizarre patterns, and the fascinating dance of the Brown-tailed Pheasant. Photographer: Xu Yongchun)

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Because of love

They chase and fight

(Black grouse duel for love, photographer @赵建英)

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They try their best to show their best side

Stand out from the competition

Become the most handsome guy in the forest

(The handsome hairstyle of Blood Pheasant, photographer @凡利伟)

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Pheasants courting

How crazy is it?

love

What price did they pay?

01

Huayu Nishang

Pheasants in a broad sense belong to a large family

It refers to birds of the order Galliformes

Including almost every day with people in "close contact"

Chicken

(Gallus gallus domesticus)

(Chickens were originally domesticated as poultry to provide humans with cheap, high-quality animal protein. Image source: Visual China)

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The ancestors of domestic chickens were wild

Red Junglefowl

(Gallus gallus)

Human domestication over a long period of time

Let us ignore the true strength of this descendant of dinosaurs

Exciting cock fights

It has been a game for princes and nobles since ancient times.

"Two heroes cannot stand side by side, how dare one be so arrogant"

(The quote is from Wang Bo's "Cockfighting Manifesto" in the Tang Dynasty; cockfighting is a popular game in ancient China, first seen in the Spring and Autumn Period, picture source @Visual China)

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Compared to domestic chicken

The red junglefowl has a stronger body and more gorgeous feathers.

(Red junglefowl mainly live in Southeast Asia, and are also distributed in Yunnan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hainan Province in China. Image source: @刘璐, Visual China, and map by @冯艺卓)

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As a large family

There are about 300 species of pheasants in the world.

Distributed throughout the world except Antarctica

(Please watch in horizontal mode. There are 5 families and 295 species in Galliformes, namely: Phasianidae, Phasianidae, Gummiidae, Odontostomidae and Phasianidae. Among them, Phasianidae accounts for 180 species, which is the largest family in Galliformes. Image source: @VisualChina, alamy, Li Yanxia, ​​Shanfeng, Zhao Yongqing, Liu Lu, Lu Minglang, map by @Hanqing, Chen Zhihao)

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China is the country with the richest pheasant resources

Known as the " Kingdom of Pheasants "

About one-fifth of the world's species

Pheasants generally have short wings and are not good at flying.

But they have strong claws and are good at running.

People call them "walking birds"

("Brother, go forward bravely, go forward!" A running golden pheasant, photographer @Tuden Gyatso)

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Beauty is synonymous with pheasants

The ancients praised them with poems and songs.

Express your emotions

Chinese Partridge

(Francolinus pintadeanus)

The body feathers are dotted with white spots

Like inlaid pearls

"Newly Embroidered Silk Russet, Two Golden Partridges"

(The quote is from Wen Tingyun's "Bodhisattva Man: Small hills overlap and golden light fades" in the Tang Dynasty; people named the pearl-like markings on the partridge "partridge spots", picture source @shutterstock)

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Brown pheasant

(Crossoptilon mantchuricum)

Rough and unrestrained

Like a painter painted with Chinese ink

The dark brown body and the white space in the tail feathers complement each other

"The two men with fur and horns stand tall, spreading their dark yellow feathers"

(The quote is from Cao Zhi's "He Fu" during the Three Kingdoms period; the he bird is the brown pheasant, which is extremely aggressive. The ancients called it "Yi Bu Zhi Die" and it was quite popular among military generals. Photographer @徐永春)

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Different from the elegance of ink painting

The golden pheasant represents another kind of aesthetic of the Chinese people

Golden Pheasant

(Chrysolophus pictus)

Magnificent

(Please watch in horizontal mode. The rooster is about one meter long and has seven colors of feathers: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. It is dazzling and colorful. Photographer: @陶洪)

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White-bellied Pheasant

(Chrysolophus amherstiae)

Noble and cool

(Please watch in horizontal mode. Scholars speculate that the red-bellied pheasant may have originated south of the Qinling Mountains, while the white-bellied pheasant originated in the Hengduan Mountains. The two diverged 1.7 million years ago. Photographer @陶洪)

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Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty painted a picture of the golden pheasant himself

The golden pheasant in the painting is neither the red-bellied pheasant nor the white-bellied pheasant.

It's a mix of both.

It is an extremely rare species

"Frosty cranes stand tall in the wild, golden pheasants dance in the clear pond"

(The quote comes from "Zhu Po" by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty; this hybrid pheasant has the characteristics of both the red-bellied pheasant and the white-bellied pheasant, but it is unknown whether it is artificially bred or the product of natural hybridization. Image source: @Visual China, design by @冯艺卓)

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Appreciate the elegance of the golden pheasant

Let's take a look at the collection of thousands of brilliant colors

Brown-tailed Pheasant

(Lophophorus impejanus)

It's covered in rainbow

Known as the "Nine-Colored Bird"

(The Brown-tailed Pheasant mainly lives on the southern side of the Himalayas and is the national bird of Nepal. Photographer: Liu Lu)

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Maybe not all pheasants meet people's aesthetic standards

Like this turkey

Although in the turkey world, he is like Pan An and Song Yu

But the appearance is really not flattering

("Don't be obsessed with me, I'm just a legend", image source: @Visual China)

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In the pheasant's gorgeous feathers

The most representative feature is its gorgeous and exaggerated tail feathers.

One of the birds with the longest tail feathers in the world

White-crowned Pheasant

(Syrmaticus reevesii)

Tail feathers can reach nearly 2 meters long

(When in heat, it will raise its long tail and shake it continuously to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Photographer @赵建英)

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In Peking Opera, its tail feathers were used as an exquisite head crown.

Exclusive for mighty generals and handsome young men

(The image of Lü Bu wearing pheasant feathers is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Nowadays, most pheasant feathers are made of artificial materials. Image source: Visual China)

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Some tail feathers are not only long but also beautiful.

White pheasant

(Lophura nycthemera)

The white tail feathers are covered with rippled "V" shaped black lines

As if it was carved by a skilled craftsman

Flying into the sky like a white silk dancing in the air

(Silver pheasant has been a famous ornamental bird since ancient times, and is known as the "idle guest". Image source: @Visual China)

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On the carving of the tail feathers

Peacock

(Pavo)

Reached the pinnacle

Tail feathers are covered with a fine grid of nanometer-sized particles

Light undergoes complex transformations in the grid

Let the feathers bloom with brilliant colors

(There are rows of nanometer-sized squares on the peacock's tail feathers. These are protein crystals, called "photonic crystals". When light shines on the crystals, complex refraction and diffraction occur, making the tail feathers bloom with colorful metallic luster. Image by @汉青)

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Besides fiddling with the tail feathers

Pheasants also have a variety of "hairstyles"

Many pheasants have a special tuft of feathers on their heads.

Called " feather crown "

Some are shining with gold and draped behind their heads.

(Please watch in horizontal mode, the Golden Pheasant looks like an exotic blond gentleman, photographer @赵永清)

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Some are as sharp as swords, towering above the head.

(The green peacock has a cluster of upright feathers on its head, photographer @曾祥乐)

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Some are black and smooth, draped in tufts behind the head

This hair volume and hair quality are enviable

(The white pheasant's hair is very black, shiny and soft, just so confident, picture source @Visual China)

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Some are very "Shamatte"

Like a boy playing with will-o'-the-wisp

(Black pheasant walking in the white snow, photographer @赵建英)

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Besides feathers

Pheasants also have unique decorations

Rock Ptarmigan

(Lagopus muta)

A famous makeup artist

The red eyebrow lines above the eyes are very bright and eye-catching

Like red eyeshadow

(The male bird is in estrus, and the eyebrow lines above the eyes, which are made of cortical filaments, begin to swell and turn bright blood red. Photographer @刘璐)

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The most fancy jewelry is

Yellow-bellied Tragopan

(Tragopan caboti)

It has a pair of cobalt blue fleshy horns on its head.

There is also a piece of meat skirt with a strange pattern under the neck

Shaking and floating in front of the chest

Like a beautiful skirt

(The pattern on the tragopan's skirt looks like the cursive Chinese character for "longevity", so it is called "longevity chicken" and a symbol of longevity and good luck. Photographer: Feng Jiang)

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The beauty of pheasants

Integrating Chinese culture

Huayu Nishang has become a part of Chinese clothing

The generals wore its tail feathers

Symbolizes bravery and fearlessness

(Since the Warring States Period, when King Wuling of Zhao introduced the "Hu clothing and horse riding", there has been a tradition of decorating hats with pheasant feathers. Some scholars believe that the pheasant is a brown pheasant. Photographer @柳叶氘)

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Civil officials wore fine clothes embroidered with its image

Symbolizes noble status and noble character

(The second-rank civil servant uniforms of the Qing Dynasty had pheasant patterns, the third-rank had peacock patterns, the fifth-rank had white pheasant patterns, and the eighth-rank had quail patterns. The flower feathers were made of brown pheasant and peacock tail feathers. Image source: @花楸, Visual China, map by @冯艺卓)

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However, what is unexpected is that

The pheasant's colorful feathers

Most of them are exclusive to "boys"

Compared with the male's elaborate grooming

The females appear much duller.

(The differences in appearance between females and males of the same species are called "sexual dimorphism", which includes differences in body shape, color, etc. Photographers @刘璐, 李艳霞,陶洪, map @冯艺卓)

The male birds dress up with great care for one purpose:

Finding Love

They try to impress the girls.

Try your best to show your best side

But beautiful appearance alone is not enough

To gain love

They need

Literary ability: singing, dancing, rap, proficient in everything

Wu Neng: Kick your love rival without mercy

Fierce love war

Eventually it turned into the madness of the male bird

02

Sing and dance

Every morning or evening

Male bird of the pheasant family

Then they started to hold love song concerts

Green-tailed pheasant

(Lophophorus lhuysii)

The singing voice is elegant and melodious

The male bird often sings loudly at dawn, standing on the rocks on the top of the mountain.

(The green-tailed rainbow pheasant is a rare flying expert among pheasants. It can use the lifting force of rising air currents to hover and soar from low altitudes to high altitudes. Photographer @李艳霞)

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Spoon Chicken

(Pucrasia macrolopha)

The voice is rough and loud

Hoarse as a drake

Therefore, it was named "Mountain Duck" by the locals.

(Male spoonbills like to make loud, harsh and rough calls in the early morning or evening: the sound is similar to kok-kok-kok, photographer @Tuden Gyatso)

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Western Quail

(Coturnix coturnix)

Often lurking in the grass

It emits a clear whistle like water drops

(A male western quail in flight; the audio is selected from the call of the western quail, whose song was given the lyrics "wet my lips" by ornithologists, picture source @Visual China)

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Male solos are often monotonous

Ring-necked Mountain Partridge

(Arborophila torqueola)

Female birds often can't stand the loneliness and join in

(The female Ring-necked Mountain Quail makes a sound similar to kwik-kwik-kwik, photographer @刘璐)

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Like a folk song duet

When the female bird recognizes the male bird's voice

They will respond to the male's love through singing.

Love song duet resounds through the mountains

Flocks of birds responded, one after another, all over the mountains and plains

Bringing vitality to spring

(The picture shows a male Ring-necked Mountain Quail, which makes a series of calls similar to "do-eat". Photographer: @徐可意)

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Singing cannot exist without dancing

Male birds with colorful feathers

Dancing for love in the mountains

Different birds dance different dances

There are frontal dance and side dance

The former mainly displays their exaggerated tail feathers to females

The latter uses the side-face killing method to attack the female bird.

Which one to use depends on

Which angle can better show the beauty of the male bird?

The peacock spreading its tail is the most typical frontal dance

The male bird's tail feathers spread out during mating

Forming a giant fan about 3 meters wide and 1.5 meters high

It is called "tail screen"

More than 100 colorful eye spots are evenly distributed on the tail screen

(Please watch in horizontal mode, "Little guy, I can't stop charming you", photographer @李艳霞)

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The male bird takes a circuitous step

Running in an arc around the female

Facing the female bird's avoidance

The male bird sometimes runs quickly and approaches closely.

Sometimes they mark time and play hard to get.

At the same time, the male bird chirps

Express your feelings like singing

(“She runs away, he chases, neither of them can escape even if they have wings”, this love “tango” can be performed up to 20 times in a day, each time lasting more than ten minutes, picture source @Visual China)

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In addition to the dazzling front screen

Side dance is also complicated

The most representative dancer is the golden pheasant

When it meets the girl it loves

The golden shawl feathers spread out like a folding fan

Performing a "Pipa Half-covered"

(“Look if I’m handsome or not”, photographer @吴雨辰)

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The male bird in heat will circle around the female bird

The female bird will constantly avoid the male bird's pursuit

And screamed

If the female bird chooses the "ideal man"

No longer avoid its pursuit

(Please watch in horizontal mode, "I can no longer sing songs like that, I will blush and avoid them when I hear them", photographer @杨明)

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Although the female pheasant appears to avoid the male bird's dance attack

In fact, I never get tired of watching their dancing.

Some female birds have the tradition of watching "dance fighting"

Black-billed Grouse

(Tetrao urogalloides)

A "Dancing Forest Conference" will be held

They usually choose open areas in the forest as their "dance ground"

The annual mate selection event begins

Before the Game

A rooster comes on stage to liven up the atmosphere

It first flew onto the dance floor

With tail spread and wings drooped, head held high and chest puffed out, head moving back and forth

Makes a high-pitched "bang-bang" sound

Therefore, the people call them "Bangzi Chicken".

("I declare that the chicken world dance king competition begins now!" Image source: @Visual China)

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Then other male birds came one after another.

Some hold their heads high, sing and sing

Some chase and fight each other

The female bird quietly admires the male bird's dance

When it sees the victor with fierce momentum and loud voice

Then they fly to the male bird and follow the winner.

(“If you want to fight, go to the dance studio!” Image source: Visual China)

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However, this kind of "dance fight"

Sometimes it turns into a fight

Male birds are extremely aggressive during the breeding season

Males compete for territory and mates

Frequent fights

Male golden pheasants often fight over females.

They stand up using their tail feathers as support.

They tear each other's fur with their powerful beaks.

Scratch the opponent's flesh

(“Take my kick”, photographer @冯江)

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Male bird for love

Kill each other, fight to the death

In this "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix" pursuit

Love makes the Phoenix

A song of colorful feathered clothes

Singing for thousands of years

When the male bird finds a mate

They will be like the prince and princess in the fairy tale

Live happily ever after?

03

Life and Death

When the male bird "gets the beauty"

Some of them have become "scumbags"

Look for the next love target immediately after mating

Nesting, egg laying, incubation and chick rearing

All cooked by females

(A newly hatched chick will mistake the first moving object it sees for its mother; it will always follow the latter and imitate its behavior, which is called "imprinting behavior", picture source @Visual China)

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But this is not betrayal

It's a survival strategy

Pheasants are very easy to raise chicks

Most of them hatch when

The body is covered with feathers and can move quickly to find food.

Plus the females have darker plumage, making them more suitable for hiding in the mountains.

Therefore, females can completely accept "removing the father and keeping the son"

(After hatching, the precocial birds have dense down feathers, their eyes are open, and they can forage for food with their parents. Image source: Visual China)

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Pheasant families generally practice a "one male, multiple females" marriage system

This also means that only a few male birds have the right to mate.

(This black-billed grouse has been recognized by the female, photographer @冯江)

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However, in the pheasant family

There are also monogamous "model families"

They usually live in high-altitude cold regions.

In order to cope with the difficult living conditions

They need both male and female to raise their chicks

Otherwise, the offspring will not survive.

At this time, the male will also take on

The roles of a “good husband” and a “good father”

The willow ptarmigan is a rare "monogamous" species in the Galliformes

The male ptarmigan is very plain looking.

The color is similar to that of the female bird

(A male willow ptarmigan flying on a branch. Its breeding season is from May to July. Its mating system is strictly monogamous, which is different from the mating system of most pheasants. Image source: Visual China)

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They live in the tundra near the North Pole.

Willow ptarmigan has a clear division of labor during the parenting period

The female bird is responsible for incubating the eggs

The male bird is responsible for guarding the territory

(Please watch in horizontal mode, a willow ptarmigan guarding its nest [left], with its mate [right] next to it, "You incubate the eggs, I'll keep watch", image source: @alamy)

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However, even the birds that "stay together forever"

There are often marriage crises

For example

Tibetan Pheasant

(Crossoptilon harmani)

They are monogamous social birds.

The "Big Brother" with high social status shows off

Suppress your "little brother"

At the same time, I seduce my younger brother's spouse

(Please watch in horizontal mode. Tibetan pheasants like to live in groups, sometimes up to 50 to 60 individuals, with strict hierarchy within the group. Photographer: Liu Lu)

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Most male birds in the order Galliformes

With exaggerated wattles, gorgeous feathers, and sharp claws

And a beautiful singing voice

Chasing love is their life mission

This mission

Can transcend time and space

Elegant tail phoenix

(Yuanchuavis kompsosoura)

It is a bird that lived 120 million years ago.

(The elegant-tailed gullbird is an enantiornithine, all of which are now extinct; the long tail feathers on the elegant-tailed gullbird are obviously not conducive to individual survival, but such an unfavorable decorative feature, in most cases, reflects the holder's stronger competitiveness in front of the opposite sex, picture source @Visual China, Wikimedia Commons, design @冯艺卓)

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Like many male birds today, it has long tail feathers.

The length is even more than 1.3 times the body length

Chasing the mission of love

It can also cross species

Stag's horns, lion's mane, etc.

It's all the result of chasing love with beauty

(Please watch in horizontal mode. Although male deer and male pheasants are two different species, they are the same in the pursuit of love. Photographer @Sun Huajin)

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This troubled Darwin.

He was once shocked by the peacock's spread tail

Because the beauty and swagger of the male peacock

This made him doubt his theory of natural selection.

"Every time I see the long feathers on a peacock's tail, I want to puke!"

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("The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!", quoted from Darwin's letter to Asa Grey on April 3, 1860)

The flashy plumage means male birds are more easily spotted by predators

Darwin was faced with a question:

"Which is more noble, survival or love?"

Darwin chose the latter

He believed that living things have the instinct to reproduce.

In order to pass on their genes

It will cost a lot of energy and even life.

He called it " sexual selection ."

It is like natural selection

Influencing the direction of biological evolution

Let the countless creatures continue to be beautiful without hesitation

(Fisher's "unbridled hypothesis" explains how female choice affects the evolution of male appearance. The hypothesis holds that female peacocks prefer to select male peacocks with relatively long tail feathers, and their offspring's tail feathers will grow. The next generation of female peacocks will also select mates with relatively long tail feathers, so that the male peacock's tail feathers will become longer and longer. Map by @汉青)

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In human culture

Love is worth pursuing with your life

Even beyond life and death

"Love comes from nowhere, but it grows ever deeper. The living can die, and the dead can live. "

(From Tang Xianzu's "The Peony Pavilion"; it is a famous work handed down by the Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu, describing the life-and-death love between the lady Du Liniang and the scholar Liu Mengmei, picture source @Visual China)

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In the animal kingdom

Individuals sacrifice their lives

In exchange for the continuation of genes and the reproduction of the population

To some extent

This can also be called " life and death commitment "

(Please watch in horizontal mode. To ensure the survival of herself and her offspring, female mantises will eat their mates after mating, while males will actively approach dangerous females in order to reproduce and willingly become nutrients. Some animals will eat their mates after mating. This phenomenon is called "sexual cannibalism". Image source: @Visual China)

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The male bird's vigorous song and dance

It's not a favor to the female bird.

Rather, males are showing off their healthy bodies and high-quality genes to females.

Courtship display

It’s about the survival and evolution of species

(Please watch in horizontal mode. The male Golden Pheasant is eager to win the girl's love and wants to stick its gorgeous and dazzling colors directly in front of the girl. Photographer @徐可意)

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A life-and-death struggle between males

It's not some deep hatred.

Fighting can select individuals that are more adaptable to the environment

Successfully survive in nature

(Please watch in horizontal mode. During the estrus period, the usually peaceful golden pheasants will fight each other for mates. Photographer: Xu Linsheng)

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Humans interpret the goodness and beauty of the universe through love

Animals fight against the cruel laws of nature with love

Tacit cooperation between the two sexes

Let love bloom with great light

(Blood pheasant couple, female on the left, male on the right; they love the sparsely populated mountains and forests, and only want to be a pair of immortal lovers away from the world, photographer @陶洪)

This article was created by

Written by: Gu Yuehu

Image: Zhang Zhaohai

Map: Chen Zhihao

Design: Han Qing & Feng Yizhuo

Reviewer: Mirror & Li Fengli & Gao Liqian

Cover source: Tao Hong & Xu Yongchun & Wu Yuchen

Audit Expert

Zhang Zhengwang, professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University

【References】

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[4] Zhang Qingmei, Auspicious Phoenix Examination, 2021, Shandong University.

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[6] Wang, MS., Thakur, M., Peng, MS. et al. 863 genomes reveal the origin and domestication of chicken. Cell Res 30, 693–701 (2020).

[7] Rebecca T. Kimball, Peter A. Hosner, Edward L. Braun,A phylogenomic supermatrix of Galliformes (Landfowl) reveals biased branch lengths,Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution,Volume 158,2021,107091,ISSN 1055-7903.

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