Every year, we humans face seemingly never-ending questions that accompany the one holiday intended to celebrate (and commercialize) love. How best to express or celebrate it? A nice dinner? Balloons? A dozen roses or chocolates? While many are still taking to Google for answers, this Valentine’s Day, consider ditching the search bar for a few hot tips from the wild. After studying the most mesmerizing courtship rituals practiced within the animal kingdom, we're of the mind that there is much we can all learn about the art of romance from the winged, hoofed, and scaly friends among us.

Make art. Anybody who’s ever seen a Japanese pufferfish can tell you just how plain they are in appearance. But what incredibly talented artists! When courting, the male creates intricate designs underwater, fighting time and tide for his beloved. 

If pufferfish can create something this stunningly beautiful on the ocean floor using just their fins, surely we can count all manner of ways (on our opposable thumbs, no less) to create a passably lovely token for our lovers. 

Keep house like a bowerbird. This year, consider forgoing the store-bought jewelry and restaurant reservation. Instead, stay in and impress your mate by turning your apartment into a space built to dazzle. Bowerbirds are some of nature’s most impressive engineers, creating their “love dens” from all kinds of materials, ranging from leaves and flowers to plastic bottle caps and even deer dung.  

So take a broom to your room, and ready, get set, dazzle. 

Dance, dance, baby. The animal world is replete with examples of mating dances, including seahorses that slow dance together, tails woven, changing colors every so often as they sway; birds of paradise that hop, puff, and serenade; and waltzing cranes and grouses—all of whom are showing off their two-step in the hope that their smooth moves lead to the bedroom. 

So take a lesson from the master movers: Take your partner out for a spin on the dance floor this year.

Bring food. Wrap it in silk.

For some spider species, a full stomach is apparently the gateway to nuptial bliss. Male spiders often present females with prey wrapped in silk, possibly to increase the chance of mating. We, for one, totally approve. So put on your apron, and get to the kitchen!

Sing. Everyone knows the frog gets the princess in the end. And usually, they do so via serenade. Indeed, frogs attract their mates by puffing up their throats and singing loudly. 

Clearly it’s working for frogs—so we don’t see why croaking won’t work for us. 

Leave a trail. Female polar bears leave a trail in their paw prints so that come mating season, males can follow them. What could be more fun than a scavenger hunt in the outdoors to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Especially when the prize is you.