Posted on 07/24/2004 2:58:27 PM PDT by Cracker72
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. So go the lyrics penned by U.S. songwriter Cole Porter. Porter, who first hit it big in the 1920s, wouldn't risk parading his homosexuality in public. In his day "the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female.
But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.
Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo have been inseparable for six years now. They display classic pair-bonding behavior—entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and the rest. They also have sex, while ignoring potential female mates.
Wild birds exhibit similar behavior. There are male ostriches that only court their own gender, and pairs of male flamingos that mate, build nests, and even raise foster chicks.
Filmmakers recently went in search of homosexual wild animals as part of a National Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female's role in the mating game. (The film, Girl Power, will be screened in the U.S this Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m PT on MSNBC TV.)
The team caught female Japanese macaques engaged in intimate acts which, if observed in humans, would be in the X-rated category.
"The homosexual behavior that goes on is completely baffling and intriguing," says National Geographic Ultimate Explorer correspondent, Mireya Mayor. "You would have thought females that want to be mated, especially over their fertile period, would be seeking out males."
Well, perhaps, in a roundabout way, they are seeking males, suggests primatologist Amy Parish.
She argues that female macaques may enhance their social position through homosexual intimacy which in turn influences breeding success. Parish says, "Taking something that's nonreproductive, like mounting another female—if it leads to control of a resource or acquisition of a resource or a good alliance partner, that could directly impact your reproductive success."
Sexual Gratification
On the other hand, they could just be enjoying themselves, suggests Paul Vasey, animal behavior professor at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. "They're engaging in the behavior because it's gratifying sexually or it's sexually pleasurable," he says. "They just like it. It doesn't have any sort of adaptive payoff."
Matthew Grober, biology professor at Georgia State University, agrees, saying, "If [sex] wasn't fun, we wouldn't have any kids around. So I think that maybe Japanese macaques have taken the fun aspect of sex and really run with it."
The bonobo, an African ape closely related to humans, has an even bigger sexual appetite. Studies suggest 75 percent of bonobo sex is nonreproductive and that nearly all bonobos are bisexual. Frans de Waal, author of Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, calls the species a "make love, not war" primate. He believes bonobos use sex to resolve conflicts between individuals.
Other animals appear to go through a homosexual phase before they become fully mature. For instance, male dolphin calves often form temporary sexual partnerships, which scientists believe help to establish lifelong bonds. Such sexual behavior has been documented only relatively recently. Zoologists have been accused of skirting round the subject for fear of stepping into a political minefield.
"There was a lot of hiding of what was going on, I think, because people were maybe afraid that they would get into trouble by talking about it," notes de Waal. Whether it's a good idea or not, it's hard not make comparisons between humans and other animals, especially primates. The fact that homosexuality does, after all, exist in the natural world is bound to be used against people who insist such behavior is unnatural.
In the U.S., in particular, the moral debate over this issue rages on. Many on the religious right regard homosexuality as a sin. And only this month, President Bush vowed to continue his bid to ban gay marriages after the Senate blocked the proposal.
Already, cases of animal homosexuality have been cited in successful court cases brought against states like Texas, where gay sex was, until recently, illegal.
Yet scientists say we should be wary of referring to animals when considering what's acceptable in human society. For instance, infanticide, as practiced by lions and many other animals, isn't something people, gay or straight, generally approve of in humans.
Human Homosexuality
So how far can we go in using animals to help us understand human homosexuality? Robin Dunbar is a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Liverpool, England. "The bottom line is that anything that happens in other primates, and particularly other apes, is likely to have strong evolutionary continuity with what happens in humans," he said.
Dunbar says the bonobo's use of homosexual activity for social bonding is a possible example, adding, "One of the main arguments for human homosexual behavior is that it helps bond male groups together, particularly where a group of individuals are dependent on each other, as they might be in hunting or warfare."
For instance, the Spartans, in ancient Greece, encouraged homosexuality among their elite troops. "They had the not unreasonable belief that individuals would stick by and make all efforts to rescue other individuals if they had a lover relationship," Dunbar added.
Another suggestion is that homosexuality is a developmental phase people go through. He said, "This is similar to the argument of play in young animals to get their brain and muscles to work effectively and together. Off the back of this, there's the possibility you can get individuals locked into this phase for the rest of their lives as a result of the social environment they grow up in."
But he adds that homosexuality doesn't necessarily have to have a function. It could be a spin-off or by-product of something else and in itself carries no evolutionary weight."
He cites sexual gratification, which encourages procreation, as an example. "An organism is designed to maximize its motivational systems," he adds.
In other words, if the urge to have sex is strong enough it may spill over into nonreproductive sex, as suggested by the actions of the bonobos and macaques. However, as Dunbar admits, there's a long way to go before the causes of homosexuality in humans are fully understood.
He said, "Nobody's really investigated this issue thoroughly, because it's so politically sensitive. It's fair to say all possibilities are still open."
Not approved of, to be sure, but it does happen in humans, and for just about the same reasons.
Mice eat their own offspring and dogs also eat their own sh*t.
So as professed by the environmental wacko's also, we should digress....
I think not!
"Supposedly humans know right from wrong, animals don't. Many animals kill their young. Some fish not only kill their young, they eat them."
Good point. The animal parallels are a poor source of justification for human behavior.
The Bonobo monkeys copulate to establish and maintain the social pecking order in the troup. In a conflict the lower standing animal will assume a receptive female posture and the dominant animal will mount the loser momentarily as a mutual assertion of dominance. If neither assumes the submissive posture then a real fight will occur. These sexual encounters will generally not involve penetration. A squabble between two females will often result in the more dominant female going through the motions of mounting the other female and thrusting away for a few seconds.
Adult males have also been observed doing the same to infant monkeys. If animal homosexuality lends some legitimacy to human homosexuality then pedophilia is also okay by logical extention.
In birds with lifelong pair bonds, sometimes two males pair with a single female making a three way bond. This three way family has a better ability to provide for and protect the young. The two males only mount the female and the relationship is not truly homosexual. If something happens to the female, the two males generally stay together for life and may present male courtship behaviour to each other but they don't have sex because neither of them play the part of the female.
The use of animal behaviour as a rationale for homosexuality is a stretching the evidence to fit.
Hey everybody, new guy here. Will try to post as much as I can. I am a homosexual, conservative, not for gay marriage. It is a real struggle to be a homosexual. I don't condone homosexual acts but wish people would understand it feels normal for a homosexual man to be attracted to another man. I agree something went wrong, what went wrong, I wish I knew. I would give anything to be straight. But believe me, its not a choice. But I do believe its choice for a small amount of people.
Posted this in the wrong article before, sorry for the repeat.
Oh brother. Yes, animals can also become confused. My female dog will often mount other dogs. Dog people will say that this is a display of dominance, and not sexuality, but maybe she is just a lesbian. Who do we make the check out to for 'discovering' this?
My sons dog will mount anything that's handy, other dogs, cats, chairs, people. He doesn't discriminate. I think he's just a horny old dog.
And you figured that out for yourself, before the study? ;~D
There are deviants in all life forms - these are self limiting since they do not reproduce.
No only if we can keep our deviants from artificial inseminations and abuse of our normal heterosexual children through perverted adoption agencies....
"National Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female's role in the mating game."
I know this is a rhetorical question , but is this writer a complete moron.
Mating is about reproduction. Without the female there is no new generation.
Copulation in the animal kingdom is about production of the next generation and determination of the pecking order.
With the possible exception of a few animals, copulation is hormone driven and only occurs at specific times of the year. Copulation time is intrinsically linked to delivery time. Deliveries occur at a time when the offspring are most likely to survive.
Most grass eaters birth in the spring. Salmon only spawn once a year. Carnivores usually birth when the grass eaters have young, Makes feeding the little carnivores easier.
Pecking order is only important in animals that live in communities. The higher ranked animals are the most likely to mate and pass their genes on. Lower ranked animals may never get to mate.
In wolf packs, only the alpha male and female mate. Any other female that produces pups will have them slaughtered.
If an beta animal approaches an alpha wolf while alpha male is still alive, she will kill him if she can. The rest of the pack is likely to back her up.
Animals in generally do not select mates until the hormone season hits. The rest of the year , members of the opposite sex and especially the same sex are just competitors for food.
Give me a break!
Has anybody ever seen the behavior of bull elks during rutting season? They'll mount other males if there are no females around. Their sex drive is stimulated by the smell of females in season and there aren't always enough females to go around. They don't make a decision to mount anything in sight, but they can't help themselves.
I sure hope the gay folks enjoy the comparison.
Frankly, it should be seen as an insult to compare "unthinking" animals and their behavior to the behavior of human beings, IMO.
Monkeys also pick nits off each other and eat them.
They fool around with same gender encounters, but when the real deal is available, that's what they want.
Two female monkeys grooming each other? Nothing sexual going on, but some smart scientist could probably assign human motivation to it.
The big FLAW in all of these animal studies is that you cannot assign a HUMAN MOTIVATION to animal behavior and that's exactly what the scientists are trying to do.
"My female dog will often mount other dogs."
I think you answered you own question without knowing it.
Of course it is a sign of dominance. She's got nothing to hump with. What do you think being the "underdog" is all about. The one at the bottom of the hump pile.
Without the thrill of submission the only thing she gets for her effort is a kink in the back.
Please send me money, $10's and $20's will do. None of them sequential.
I was taught one reason Humans have religion is to separate Human behavior from animal behavior.
Morality
"That's the gayest dog that I've ever seen."
"Sparky - don't be gay!"
It wasn't really a question.... I knew that already, and we just wrote big checks to the clowns in this article. ;~D
My friend had a little male peke that thought he was the king of the hill and attempted to prove it at every opportunity. This little monster sodomized a male cat frequently.
The cat was not normal. It had a head injury from an MVA, was toothless, and eyeless on one side from same. He could catch mice but didn't know what to do with them afterwards. He was very strangely behaved.
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