As Shakespeare once wrote, love is blind. Luckily, we have animals to guide us. Here are four lessons on love and acceptance from creatures in the wild.

Freedom to Choose 

These Zebra finches know that, when it comes to procreation, it helps to have a say in the matter. A new study has found that birds who selected their own mates were 37 percent more likely to produce offspring than birds placed in arranged partnerships. The results also suggest that the birds picked their mates on the basis of behavioral compatibility—always a wise move.

Cheating Isn’t Cool

Researchers recently found that creatures in mutually dependent partnerships rarely exploit one another in order to survive. While many scientists argue that mutual exploitation is an essential part of interdependency in the wild, the new study suggests that animals in cooperative relationships will avoid causing harm to their partner.

Love is Fluid

Scientists are discovering that bisexual activity is common in many species, from fruit flies to Japanese macaques. On one island in Hawaii, 31 percent of the pairings between monogamous Laysan albatrosses are female-female partnerships. Although these same-sex avian marriages are largely in response to a surplus in females on the island and not necessarily sexual preference, the community's openness still stands as an example of tolerance.

Gender Roles, Shmender Roles

Seahorses have been mixing up gender stereotypes for millions of years. In monogamous seahorse couples, the female places her eggs into a pouch on the male’s abdominal, where the eggs develop to maturity. It’s unclear whether or not male seahorses receive paid paternity leave, but regardless, maybe we should take a page from their book when it comes to splitting the demands of childcare.

Size Isn’t Everything

A recent study examining nine species of howler monkeys has revealed that, on average, the male monkeys evolved to have either deep calls or large testicles—but not both. In certain howler species, males use deep mating calls to compete for access to female partners, so testicle size is less important than a baritone howl. Other species have larger testicles and higher vocals because the females copulate with multiple partners, making high sperm production (which is correlated with testicle size) an asset.