When it is time to reproduce, the male lobster acts more like the male bowerbird than a crustacean. First, he builds a special mating shelter out of rocks. Then, he places piles of clam shells, crab carcasses and other items outside to show off his hunting prowess.
If suitably impressed, the female lobster will check out the shelter with her claws before giving the male the sniff test.
"He needs to smell good," said Diane Cowan, a lobster scientist.
Discovering the mating rituals is just one aspect of lobster research that has kept Cowan busy for 27 years — many of them at a 6-acre lobster pound, the research lab for The Lobster Conservancy in Friendship.
Read the complete story from the Portland Press Herald.