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."
I knew the offer of money was too good to be true. I am crest fallen.
LOL!
To my knowledge animals don't give each other abortions - so how come we don't imitate them in that respect?
my bunny rabbits do it. a male humps a male, a neutered female humps a male. it's a dominance thing.
My bunnies also committed incest.
Some animals commit rape. Cannibalism. Infanticide. Territorial murder.
But since it occurs in the animal kingdom, it's natural, and we shouldn't judge when people do it. Right?
Mrs VS
With regard to behavior patterns modeled by animals, but frowned upon amongst humans, it is important to remember that we now have governments to take care of these issues.
For instance, pigs savage their young, but we have the public schools; chickens practice cannibalism - we have the income tax.
The government appears to be taking the right steps now to take over sexuality from mere citizens.
Await your fate, human resources!
It's a natural act for an animal to seek sexual gratification from any source available, whether the opposite sex, the same sex, or a tree. "Any port in the time of storm?"
Will these animals want health care coverage extended to their homosexual partners, too?
LOL!! Thanks for my belly laugh of the day...
What are you? Some kind of anthropomorph?
Homosexual Activity Among Animal Researchers Stirs Fraudulent Debate
just so it doesn't stir mass-debate...
My Brother's now deceased big dopy mutt used to eat cat poop out of the litter box.. Trying to justify behaviors by looking at animals is bad enough. Reading things into animal behavior when there is no way to verify what the animal is thinking or why it is acting is beyond irresponsible. One wonders if these people started out with their conclusion - it very much appears so.
So I guess it's OK for me to round up a few women against their will, copulate with them, and beat to a pulp any male that comes in my territority. Heck, the male elephant seal does that, why not me?
Our neutered alpha female terrier humps our son but never me. Thanks for finally explaining why. Other than that, she has a tendency to go for the neighbors' kneecaps, and pick fights with neighborhood dogs of all genders and sizes...
(Any application to recent events at the DNC convention are purely conjectural at this point in time... ;-)
Well, you may be at the top, but she sees your son's spot in the pecking order as attainable or below her own... If it is minor and the dog is not overly possessive of food and toys, it will outgrow itself.
I don't know how old your son is, but it would be good to actively reverse this perceived pecking order, perhaps have your son work on a little leash or obedience training with the dog. MUST be your son doing the training and not you. It is probably more of a game, but if she is a very alpha or very possessive dog as well, you could end up with trouble or challenges with your son around feeding time or toys if you don't.
Excellent explanation. I have only one point of divergence from it: The type of social dominance vs. submissive behavior described in the Bonobo monkeys is not about sex at all. It's about power and status in the troupe. Power and status are constantly being tested by younger animals, and shifts as animals age or become sick and injured.
Although it takes a form of physical expression we humans consider to be intimate contact, to the monkeys it's not intimate whatsoever.
And that's the point: We humans primarily use vocal and written speech to communicate with one another. Most other species use touch, body language and vocalizations.
Other animals that live in social groups have similar behaviors which take different forms of physical expression. For example, dominant wolves will snarl and growl at subservient wolves. The latter will tuck their tails and, when necessary, lay down on their backs and offer the dominant wolf their neck and belly. Both males and females do this for the alpha male and alpha female. If we humans choose to apply our own sexual viewpoints to that behavior, we can certainly see homosexual overtones in it. But it's nothing of the kind.
In pet dogs, some individuals will attempt to hump humans. Most people assume this to be abberrant sexual behavior. In fact, it's nothing of the kind. It's dominance behavior. The dog is not trying to mate with the person, but to bully the person.
They mention ostriches without telling the whole truth. In that species, male ostriches raise the young, and two or more males may band together to protect their babies.
It's the opposite in elephants, which are a matriarchal species. Elephants constantly touch and reassure one another. I have no doubt that, should a researcher choose to see it that way, some gestures among a band of females could seem homosexual to human sensibilities.
In short, if a researcher goes out deliberately looking for what humans consider to be homosexual behavior, they can easily find examples — even though it isn't such behavior at all.
Our son is a teenager so guess whose job it has fallen to walk the dog every day. I sometimes tend to think that our son is the untrainable problem (not the dog). In my view, getting humped on the leg every once in a while is his just punishment for not diligently walking her.
Now that I know what it really signifies, maybe I'll rub it in a bit by telling him... ;-)
ROTFL!
Well, if he's a teenager, at least you aren't needing to be concerned about him getting hurt... The training wouldn't hurt though, the dog or the kid!
;-) <-- potential government researchers please take note
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