Animal Homosexuality
Queer deer For centuries, perhaps millenia, homosexuals have been
beaten up on, literally and physically, for engaging in sex that is
"not natural". The arrogant assumptions underlying this abuse is that
(a) even among the animals, the sole purpose of sex is reproduction,
and that (b) all animals are heterosexuals -- a few neurotic house
pets aside. Therefore, homosexuality could not occur in nature and is
an abomination.
The problem is that these homophobic assumptions are blatantly
incorrect. Biologists studying a broad range of species, from insect
to avian to wildebeest to the king of beasts, report a startling
degree of homosexual hanky-panky and other non-reproductive sexual
goings-on. And while for decades they have tried to ignore the
situation by dismissing animal homosexuality as something else or
nothing at all -- mistaken identity, dominance rituals, and so on --
the sheer volume of data on the subject has at last made this impossible.
In fact, as human beings have spent the last several decades
perfecting technologies that could better allow them to spy on
unsuspecting animals, both in the wild and in zoos, the uncensored
truth has at last begun to get out: animals like getting their freak
on as much as you or I, and in some cases more so. Oral sex, anal sex,
masturbation, pulling out before ejaculation, sex with partners too
old or young to reproduce -- it seems they do it all, so much so that
many naturalists are already admitting that while some species really
are interested only when mating season comes around, others clearly
just like making whoopee. Even for animals, having sex just feels good
and is often done for its own pleasure, in ways that couldn't possibly
lead to procreation, including with members of the same sex.
What's more, as cross-species data have become more available through
reporting and publication, researchers have begun sorting species onto
a gay-straight continuum, noting whether their members
* only occasionally dabble in same gender sex,
* are very bi-curious but mostly straight,
* or are all out bisexual or even simply... queer as folk.
Elephant cunnilingus As the tally stands at present, some 450
different kinds of animals have been reported to exhibit some degree
of homosexuality among their members (roughly 130 of them birds). This
figure is especially significant given that only in the last 2-3
decades have biologists really been able to acquire sufficient
evidence and observation to make drastic new conclusions about the
vast and complex world of animal mating behaviors. As so much remains
to be uncovered about animal sexuality, the actual number of species
that exhibit "gay/lesbian" and other alternative behaviors may be far
greater than 450. Not only do we not understand the full role and
scope of "gay sex" in the animal kingdom, we are more ignorant than
most people realize about heterosexual mating practices as well: there
are many species whose heterosexual mating practices have yet to be
observed!
Surprising as this revelation may seem at first, it really makes sense
when you consider that whenever humans come barging into their midst,
most wild animals make their exit. And even among those who do not,
the sound of approaching humans is enough to spoil the mood. After
all, it's hard to observe potential enemies when you're humping away,
and even harder to flee when your genitals are merged with someone
else's genitals -- or whatever. Of course, not all animal mating
behavior consists of humping or merging. Rituals of courting and
bonding comprise a significant portion of gay and straight mating
behavior. But the principle remains the same -- humans generate fear
and uneasiness, neither of which is an aphrodisiac.
Male elephant mounting another maleAs a result, human knowledge of
animal sex has previously relied heavily on our observations of
domesticated animals, creatures whose sexual behavior has been grossly
altered (by selective breeding, castration, and the culling of males)
to accommodate the farmer's goal of carefully managed reproduction.
And even when animal sexual behavior, wild or domestic, has deviated
from the anticipated norm (again: sex is for reproduction and all
animals are innately heterosexuals), human bias has simply filtered it
out. That is, even if could be seen to exist, we simply didn't hear
about it.
So it comes as quite a surprise to most people to learn just how much
gaiety and sexual frivolity actually exist in the animal kingdom.
Laying aside the issue of numbers of species observed in the behavior,
we are stunned by the sheer depth and complexity of same-gender sex in
the animal kingdom. It comes as quite a revelation to learn that some
of the queerest creatures are those we thought we already knew so much
about -- those of us with Animal Planet anyway.
A quick survey of the bisexual/queer as folk category in fact reveals
some surprising names: american bison, bighorn sheep, giraffes,
African buffalo, Thomson's gazelles, kob antelope, black swans,
greylag geese, various gulls and sandpipers, lyre birds,
cock-of-the-rock, assorted parrots, walruses, harbor seals, elephant
seals, manatees, orca whales, gray whales, bottlenose and spinner
dolphins, gorillas, various macaque apes and langur monkeys, and pygmy
(or bonobo) chimpanzees.
Bison, those large, rugged symbols of the American West, are among the
species which not only engage in homosexual activities with great
frequency (for example, among males roughly three years and younger at
least 55% of mounting is male on male), but practice mounting that
does not support the old-fashioned notion that the purpose of mounting
is simply to carve out hierarchies of dominance. While the stereotyped
image is of the biggest, toughest males merely rearing up on the
flanks of wimpier males, just to show them who's boss, in reality
there's a good deal of hot juicy sex going on.
Male Big HornsIn fact, not only is anal intercourse a common outcome
of such mounting, but the "mountee" often tries to help out with
getting that big cock into his rectum, lifting his own tail out of the
way and/or backing his rectum toward the erect penis of the mounting
male, or otherwise positioning his hips to facilitate the penetration.
What's more, when their little tryst is done (it usually lasts longer
than vaginal/heterosexual copulation) the "mountee" may then allow
himself to be mounted by several other bulls in succession.
And bison are certainly not unique. Male bighorn sheep, for example,
also actively strive to accommodate their male lovers. The ram being
mounted arches his back in a posture known as lordosis to aide the
mounter in penetrating him. The mounting male meanwhile displays all
the passion and apparent orgasmic finish associated with vaginal
copulation. It is also worth noting here that Big Horn males engage in
various other sexual behaviors, including group sex interactions in
which three to ten individuals "cluster together in a circle, rubbing,
nuzzling, licking, horning, and mounting each other" (Bagemihl,
Biological Diversity, 1999). In a parody of every homophobe's
Deliverance nightmare, such a group will even sometimes focus on a
single male and take turns mounting him, sometimes working together to
keep him from running away.
Naturally all this male-on-male action makes one wonder: what are all
the female bighorn and bison doing while this is going on? Since
neither species has gone extinct yet, despite human predation, we can
conclude that successful heterosexual breeding is taking place. Beyond
that, while biologists have been lax to study and record the sexuality
of many other species' females, researchers studying the bighorn
assure us that female bighorns do not share the male's rampant libido,
same-sex or otherwise. While rams show sexual interest all through the
year, ewes only appear sexually active during the brief annual rut
(i.e. while in heat), and even then only minimally.
Not all female animals are quite so repressed, however. Among kob
antelope we find an example of females who are not only highly sexed
but strongly lesbian as well. Living in all-female herds, kob females
interact only marginally with males for the purpose of insemination.
Most of the time, the females busily engage in courtship displays
and/or mounting with other females, with their lesbian mounting
mimicking the heterosexual mounting done by males. Though there can be
no actual penetration to show that "real" sex is taking place, it is
interesting to note that at least part of the time the mounting female
imitates the behavior that mounting males display at orgasm: that is,
she gives a single, culminating deep thrust.
Additionally, after dismounting her lover, the female kob is likely to
lick her partner's vulva and udder while the recipient spreads her
back legs and arches her back and neck, signaling the throes of
intense sensation and probably pleasure. As if such displays were not
enough to distinguish the kob from the more repressed female bighorn,
there is the phenomenon of her extreme sexual frequency. Researchers
estimate that kob females engage in these lesbian mounting sessions an
average of twice per hour.
Not all gay animal sex parodies hetero sex, however. While the
mounting behaviors described above are significant, homosexual
interactions among animals take on a variety of forms, some imitating
or shared by reproductive sex and some not. Dolphins have been
observed stimulating their partner's genital slit with their noses
("beaking"). Male apes hang from branches and rub their penises
together ("fencing"). Manatees use their armpits, mouths, and flippers
to pleasure their sexual partner. Whales and dolphins have been
observed engaging in an orgy of rubbing bellies, stroking flippers,
and engorged genitals -- as many as six at a time among bow heads.
Female apes finger-fuck each other, rub their clits together, and lick
each other's labia. Deep kisses have been observed among different
apes and monkeys, and many species incorporate grooming, cuddling, and
carressing into their courtship. Most importantly, many species
exhibit "mutuality": shifting roles between penetrated and penetrator,
stimulator and stimulated -- sometimes even carrying both out
simultaneously.
Because courting rituals are also an important part of animal
sexuality it's worth adding here that homosexual courtship also varies
from the standard hetero script. Just as sexual stimulation does not
always parody the boy on girl pattern of heterosexuality, so too does
courting sometimes diverge into alternative patterns -- although
perhaps less so than does sex itself. Birds are probably the best
examples of the principle, with male birds sometimes acting the
boy/girl roles and sometimes both acting the boy role side by side.
For instance, two male greylag geese may stand side by side engaging
in identical courtship displays. In another variation, some animals
act out all the rituals of mating without ever getting around to the
mounting. They just settle down to live companionable lives together
-- hunting together or laying on the same nest together or otherwise
acting out the role of an old married couple (who just happen to be
celibate).
Probably one of the most significant things that we can observe from
animal homosexuality is not its diversity or the mere fact that it
occurs, but rather the survival-enhancing role that it plays within
the social group of the animals themselves. That is, while we have
long assumed that homosexuality was an evolutionary dead end,
something that only interferes with the species' ability to reproduce
itself, it may be that homosexual behavior strongly contributes to the
survival of some if not all species which exhibit it.
Lesbian BonobosPerhaps the best illustration of this principle can be
found among the bonobo chimpanzees. Bonobos (who just happen to be
man's closest living relatives) organize their social life around
small female-centered family groups. Males have their place in the
larger social group, but it is essentially peripheral to the female
groups. Meanwhile, the females within these core groups live together,
sleeping, foraging for food, and raising their offspring together in a
bonded, permanent family. What makes these groups truly special is
that they are bound together not merely by food sharing and grooming
but by their lesbian interactions.
At puberty, the female bonobo leaves her birth family to find a new
group of females in another area -- fortunate since mating with
unrelated males in a new area will ensure that her young have a
healthy mix of genes, usually good for the evolution and survival of
the species. When she finds a new female family group, she enters into
a lesbian relationship with an older female within the group, becoming
her close companion in all things. Meanwhile she builds bonds with the
other females in the group as well as with individuals in close
neighboring groups. After a year or so she has an entire network of
friends and lovers, male and female, within the group. Most
significantly, even once she is actively mating with the males in the
periphery of her new female home group, 64% of the young female's
sexual interactions will continue to be with other females.
The social benefits to the bonobo are clear. The young female forges
bonds of affection, trust, and mutual support with the other females
through cuddling, grooming, and mutually enjoyable sex. Just as Bonobo
infants are bonded to their mothers and other family members by
reassuring experiences of positive touch and the meeting of needs
(cuddling, nursing, playing), so too do the females in the family
group bond new members.
Masturbating male chimpIn turn, such tight bonds create a more
peaceful, cooperative family group, one which provides a more safe,
secure environment to successfully raise the next generation of
offspring. If females in the group did not have a way to generate such
bonds, then the constant influx of new females (and the departure of
loved and accepted family members) would create stress and tension
within the family groups and larger communities. As chimp researchers
have well documented, stress and unease leads to conflict and even
social chaos, with an increased risk of violence (especially risky
around infants and small juveniles) and a reduced ability to work
together to locate and share food and defend against predators or
other outside aggressors.
It is tantalizing to consider that such pro-social benefits may not be
peculiar to bonobo chimpanzees and other primates. Perhaps even the
bighorn sheep find social benefits from homosexual behavior.
Specifically, it is possible that the pleasurable sexual interactions
shared among males may help to offset the aggressive competition that
erupts during the breeding season. Interestingly enough, homosexual
activity is greatest when males have most access to females -- during
the "rut", the annual period when males are beating each others'
brains in, horn to horn, to decide who will and will not breed with
the females.
One might be tempted to conclude that males are just hornier at this
time of the year, spilling over into same-sex relations, but this
really only seems to account for part of the behavior. With this
theory we could explain away the male eagerness to "settle" for
whatever is available and similar enough to a vagina (another male's
rectum). But that would still leave us to explain all the mutual
nuzzling and courting that goes on among males, as well as the
willingness of males to themselves be anally penetrated.
Though it can certainly be only speculation at this point, given what
we have observed among the chimpanzees, one may be tempted to say that
all this gay gadding-about simply soothes tempers, that rubbing,
nuzzling, and sexual gratification serves to create a group of males
who are calmer, less violent, and thus less likely to do serious harm
to themselves or to the breeding females (and their resultant offspring).
Even after mating, some animal homosexual relationships persist.
Naturalists studying various birds species have learned that, not only
are there gay parents among the birds, but they actually prove
themselves to be more successful than "straight" couples. Once the
hurdle of becoming parents is over (which female pairs accomplish
through a quick hetero fling and male pairs through adoption)
homosexual bird couples do just fine. Lesbian pairs turned out to be
much better at hatching their egg clutches than "straight" couples
(more live chicks produced from the clutch) while gay male bird
couples did the best of any group in successfully raising live,
healthy offspring from egg to maturity. Male nest sitters could more
successfully defend the nest against predators and other aggressors
while the other male partner was off hunting food.
Ultimately, our observation of animals shows us that homosexuality is
only right and natural, and that contrary to our expectations, within
nature homosexuality serves not to threaten and destroy heterosexual
reproduction, but to augment it, by stabilizing individuals and
communities with added bonds of affection and support, as well as
giving a much needed outlet for sexual drives that would otherwise
generate
http://www.rotten.com/library/sex/homosexuality/animal-homosexuality/
