Watch: This unique mating dance by a pair of endangered South American birds will mesmerise you
A moment to celebrate as two endangered grebes get together in a bewitching love ritual.
Near the southernmost part of South America, on remote glacial lagoons in Patagonia, two unique-looking birds perform a curious dance. One of them lifts its head and then suddenly dips into the water, while its partner spreads its wings and circles around it. Immediately afterwards, they join the lower halves of their body and begin thrusting their heads repeatedly into their backs.
These are the hooded grebes, and this is their mating dance, which has been filmed in such great detail for the first time. The bewitching courtship ritual (above) is part of a documentary titled Tango in the Wild, produced by Living Wild in South America.
The team spent six whole months in the largely inaccessible lakes of Patagonia, which has wind speeds higher than Antarctica. The species was only discovered by humans 43 years ago.
The grebe has been declared critically endangered, with only 800, and is very close to extinction because of human activity.
Watch the full documentary below:
