Years ago I was in the Copenhagen Zoo during the time when the zoo was aiming to get a male elephant to mate with a female. She was having none of it. She wasn’t even playing coy. I don’t think she even noticed he was there. How she didn’t notice, I couldn’t imagine. All my friends and I could do was notice. Deciding that our staring was probably not helping create an amorous mood we moved on. I still trot that story out once in awhile as a “Once I saw…and it was this big” travel tale.
Evidently, mating habit events at zoos are money makers. I just found out that various zoos in the United States have Valentine’s events and tours that highlight animals’ love rituals. The adults only tours don’t make promises that animals will actually be mating during the tours, but they promise a good time all the same.
Check out your zoo to see if an Valentine event is happening. You might be in luck. I did find some that have already happened, but here are a few you can still catch:
Woo at the Zoo at the San Francisco Zoo
Night Moves at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, CA
Mating Dances Wild Romances at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, UT
Romancing the Zoo at the Oklahoma City Zoo
Here is an article about these events that is a fun read.