<P> Hippopotamus are commonly misconceived as being aggressive animals, when in actuality the mothers are very nurturing and sensitive . Mating and birth both occur in the water for hippopotamus . This because it gives them privacy when conceiving and it helps conserve energy during birth . The female hippo normally averages around 5--6 years while males are average an age of 7 - 8 . During mating season the male hippopotamus will find a mate out of the herd, showing interest by smelling the female's dorsal end . As long as the male acts submissive during courting season the adults in the herd will not interfere . Once the male finds the female he wants to mate with, he begins provoking the female . He then will push the female into the water and mounts her . In order to alert the herd or other animals that may be lurking around the male will let a loud wheezing sound . Preceding birth the female exhibits aggressive behavior leaving the herd until after the birth of the calf . Although hippopotamus can mate anytime of the year, the mating season ranges from February to August . Because the energy cost is high, the female generally only has one offspring in a two years span . </P> <P> The courtship behaviour of honey bees follows through two distinct types: Apiary Vicinity Mating and Drone Assembly Mating respectively . Apiary vicinity mating usually takes place in weather that is cool and is more local to the apiary from which the queen resides . The drones are in the same apiary too but do not mean that it will lead to inbreeding . Drones assemble in a bulb of warm air close or far from the apiary . They are alert when the queen has flown out of the hive and will follow her route . This is followed by a sort of fast hum or buzz in the general bee population that follows an upward temperature gradient . The male drone mounts on the virgin queen and inserts his endophallus, ejaculating semen . The male honey bee will then pull away from the queen, but his endophallus will be ripped from his body and remain attached to the newly fertilized queen . The next male honey bee will remove the endophallus that was previously left by the other male honey bee and will eventually ejaculate and lose his own . The frequency of mating for the male honey bees is seven to 10 times during a mating flight . Most of the drones die quickly immediately after mating, and their abdomen rips open since the endophallus has been removed . The few that survive are usually ejected from their nests, as they have served their sole purpose by mating . </P> <P> They only attend one mating flight and queen stores up to 100 million sperm within her oviducts during this flight, but only five to six million are stored in the spermatheca of the queen . Only a few of this sperm are used by the queen at a time to fertilize the eggs throughout her life . New queen generations will mate and produce their colonies if the queen runs out of sperm in her lifetime . The sex of the offspring is controlled by the honey bee queens as the eggs passing through the oviduct can be determined whether they are fertilized or not by the queen . Research has indicated that eggs that are fertilized develop into female workers and queens while the unfertilized eggs become drone honey bees . Female workers can lay infertile eggs but do not mate . The infertile eggs become male honey bees . The eggs of the queen are laid in oval - shaped structural cells that usually stick to the nest ceiling . Royal jelly is then filled with these cells to prevent larvae from falling . Soon - to - be workers are fed royal jelly during the first two days . The future queens are given royal jelly throughout the entire larval period . Each member colony development depends on caste . For proper growth from eggs to adult, the male honey bees need 24 days, 21 for workers and only 16 for the queens . </P>

When can you say that a person enters the courtship stage