Or are they examples of dominance display.
I think a magazine had pictures of two bucks, one was one top of the other.
It was a humor magazine so I can’t take it as fact.
Bruce Bagemihl’s “Natural Exuberance” is the standard text. The list is pretty impressive.
Are human homosexual acts “dominance displays”? That seems to me to be yet another switcheroo played by those who refuse to accept that homosexuality is entirely natural.
“Biological Exuberance”, I beg your pardon.
Check out the following Straight Dope column.
Is there such a thing as a gay animal? http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_198.html
I have a vague recollection that in the animal kingdom only primates (including humans) and dolphins engage in “sex for fun” as opposed to a purely procreative event. I would think that would have bearing on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.
Then of course I have seen male dogs hump many inanimate objects so who knows? I may be way off base.
Why do you think other animals have sex? Do you think they know babies will result? Heck, humans may be the only animal to have sex for anything but fun.
Aticles i’ve read cover a variety of species. Gay penguins, gay dogs, gay cats, gay monkeys, gay ferrets, gay dolphins and gay sheep. Studies on gay sheep have been the most common. It’s not only farmers that have interest in sheep’s sex lives.
With the sheep. Eight percent of rams are said to be gay. If they take a gay ram and put it with a ewe and another ram it goes for the other ram. It doesn’t go for the ewe. I soppose it could be dominent behavior but wouldn’t that include occasionaly opting to have sex with the female? Also the male sheep on the receiving end both hetero and homo don’t try to prevent themselves from being mounted.
Wendell and Cass, the gay penguins at Coney Island:
I went to graduate school in behavioral neuroscience specializing in sexual differentiation. Most of our work was in rats and it is standard to modify rat sexual behavior using the sex hormones at different stages to do different experiments. The brain depends on exposure to sex hormones at different stages in development to differentiate the brain. The brain defaults to a female pattern and exposure to male sex hormones causes it to develop as male. This exposure depends on brief intervals called “critical periods” to develop normally. Modifting hormonal exposure during different critical periods can induce many types of permanent behavioral results. Some of the earlier experiments in this field were done in the 1970’s and involved giving young male rats different hormonal treatments during different critical periods of brain development. It is well established that you can create males rats that exhibit sexual behaviors that appear to be homosexual in nature. This work has also been replicated in other animals many times although other animals tend not to be as convienient to this type of research as rats. I am 100% certain that we could manipulate human sexual preference in many ways if people were allowable research subjects for this type of research. The hormonal/brain systems that control this type of behavior are fairly well understod now.
… and the Google ads are for display boards, light boxes, and tradeshow exhibit systems… :dubious:
It appears that ducks indulge in not only homosexual activity, but a whole range of truly deviant practices
I think in most animals sex is more a biological imperative than a thought out process that they hope they get laid tonight.
Mother nature has programmed species to reproduce. I have not heard of deer, for example, shagging each other at any convenient opportunity. For a short time each year the females come into heat, the males kick in the testosterone and fight for the right to mate and then it is done and back to munching leaves and hitting cars. I doubt they “know” they are making babies or even doing it out of fun.
All due respect, Whack, but this is GQ and is not, therefore, primarily about what you have or have not heard of. These questions are subject to factual responses, and your personal opinions, while interesting, are not necessarily relevant. The book referenced above is a fascinating read if you’re interested in the factual background of this subject.
The same goes for humans. We do not have a specific time of the year, but have the same sex drive effects from hormones that have nothing to do with a desire to reproduce. We have sexual urges we seek to fill and we find the process enjoyable. Animals have sexual urges they seek to fill and they find the process enjoyable. Hence, they do it for fun as much as we do.
What about invertebrates? Are there any gay invertebrates?
Cockroaches spring to mind. Black Widows can’t stand males and only use them for procreation.
I did a very classic experiment in college with mice. Unlimited food and water, clean quarters, but limited room. Mice bred like crazy of course. When it got real crowded I observed the following:
Fights amoung male mice much more serious.
Homosexual acts amoung the male mice.
Females eating their young.
An increase in tumours.
:eek:
Oh yeah, lots. Probably the most bizarre example is found in some bedbugs, where males will inject their sperm into other males (often straight through the skin :eek: ). The sperm will survive for hours or weeks inside the other male and when he mates he releases both his own sperm and the parsitic load.
Which goes to show that ‘nature’ doesn’t really give a toss about orientation. Whatever works, works.
Yes. Bagemihl’s book, mentioned above, records that the first scientifically-reported male/male copulation was between two beetles.
Of course, a lot depends on one’s definition of “gay”. Is a beetle mentally sophisticated enough to “prefer” or “choose” one course of action over another?
My last boyfriend turned out to be an invertebrate. Man, was HE gay.