Are there any examples of 'gay' animals besides human??

Are there any examples of ‘gay’ animals beside humans in nature?

I am not asking if there are examples of animals that engage in occassional homosexual activity, i.e. dogs and monkeys displaying dominance, etc. What I am asking specifically is if there is any known animal that when given the choice between being sexual with a member of its own sex verses its opposite sex, will invariablily choose the same sex member, even going as far as too disdain and avoid sexual contact the opposite sex member?

Or are humans the only species that engages in such activity?

This is not a flame, just curious

This is double-posted and in the wrong forum… And a cursory glance at the archives would have produced this classic.

Well sure. Lots.

They fall into several different categories, though.

First off you got some bacteria, plants, and one-celled organisms which exchange genetic information but don’t have different sexes. They’re all gay.

Next off you got some fish, insects, and birds which simply don’t care and will mate with anything of their species for the hell of it. Some of these, like angelfish form exclusive partnership relations. So, you’ll find several species of fish and birds with a percentage of gay partners.

You find some rats rodents and marsupials who engage in similar behavior.

Then, you find some pack and herd animals. Usually there is only one male that mates with the females. The younger males aspire to be that male, and when they reach age they may challenge the alpha or get thrown out of the herd. Some of these join up and form homosexual relationships, but usually this is a temporary thing. They’ll become heterosexual if and when they attain alpha status.

Still, within these herds and packs, a certain percentage of the male population seemingly opts out of the competition for alpha status, and becomes either neuter for all intents or purposes or homosexual. These males stay within the herd or pack, stay exclusively homosexual and do not seek alpha status even when presented with the opportunity. You can find this with horses, dogs, wolves, and some big cats, and probably other herd and pack animals as well.

Then you got you dolphins. Some dolphins are exclusively homosexual, some form sexual partnerships with other males for life, but may occasionally seek to kidnap a female for reproductive purposes. Seals and Sea lions also engage in this behavior.

Then you have your various monkeys and apes. There’s a full spectrum of sexual behavior. You got the basically promiscuous, who, like Richard Gere, will have sex with anything. You have your preferential homosexuals, both male and female, and even your exclusive life partners type deal.

Some baboons seem to go through a homosexual period during adolescence. Some of these later turn heterosexual and compete for breeding privileges, others don’t. There is one species where the homosexual baboons are extremely aggressive, while the heterosexuals in the pack are basically layabouts. These gay baboons go off on raids, causing trouble with other packs and the human populace, causing a bad name for baboons everywhere.

So, in conclusion, there all kinds of species of animals that engage in homosexual and exclusive homosexual behavior. Some of this is clearly for evolutionary advantage as is the case for dolphins who team up, or gay horses that help the herd without producing the burden of offspring, or baboons that perform territorial and raiding duties. Some, it’s a matter of dumb luck. They mate for life, and your basic penguin might not know if his first mate is female or male.

Though, to be sure, Cecil’s information is way out of date at this point.

The theory that “Animals usually engage in homosexual behavior only when crowded, deprived of normal heterosexual contact, or otherwise subjected to stress” is under heavy fire, and tons of new examples of exlusively or predominantly homosexual behavior have been documented, from casual sex, to rape, to lifelong partnerships.

My favorite is lifetime bonded male swans, who not only are more successful in defending their shared territory, but actually have been seen stealing the eggs of other swan couples to raise as their own.

Don’t forget the “mounting” behavior in macacques.

This shouldn’t really be classified as “homosexual” behavior, though. The alpha male mounts one of the lesser males who’s been acting up, in order to assert his dominance over him. The recipient doesn’t appear to enjoy the act at all, and will usually run away as soon as he realizes what’s about to happen. The alpha male usually does not pursue the other male or otherwise force the issue; just by attempting to stick his willy where the sun don’t shine, he’s made his point. So to speak.

I haven’t looked into it much, but this mounting-as-dominance behavior may be present in other primates. Heck, it may even be present in humans, which would go a long way to explaining male homophobia.

There’s a guy at McGill University here in Montreal who’s doing research on exclusively lesbian macacques.

I read somewhere exclusively homosexual behaviour is most often observed in mammals, though my information on that isn’t very up-to-date.

Researchers in Japan were able to make a certain species of fly become bisexual by removing a gene.

Don’t forget our close relative the bonobo.

Band Name!! :smiley:

I’ll have to dig up a cite for this when I get home, but I have heard of a male flamingo couple that lives in a zoo (Netherlands, I think). They’ve apparently been together for several years. The zookeepers finally gave them a fertilized egg because they seemed to enjoy parenting other flamingo chicks, so they even have a baby of their own.

Very often, homosexual pairings in wolf packs act as “aunts” or “uncles” for the cubs of the rest of the pack, and therefore help those cubs to survive to adulthood.

I know we discussed this somewhere before, and I even had a cite (from Salon.com), but I can find neither the thread nor the cite right now.

Will keep looking.

I saw a Documentary once that said that Seagulls have an abnormally high level of homosexual behavior as compared to other species.

Erek

Hate to ask, but any cites?

Well, the Master talks about lesbian maque monkeys in this report: Do female pigs have six-minute orgasms?

The Los Angles Times ran a rather long story on homosexual sea gulls a number of years ago. Unfortunately their free site archive search only goes back to to 1985 and the story was before that.

Dunno if these articles require Salon premium access:

The main article about a new book on the subject of animal sexuality: “Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity”
The FABULOUS kingdom of GAY animals
http://www.salon.com/it/feature/1999/03/cov_15featurea.html

Article about Wendel and Cass: a gay couple in a NYC zoo
We’re here, we’re queer, we’re penguins
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/03/08/gay_penguins/index.html

So, when are we going to do something about all this gay wildlife, or are we just going to let all these wild animals flaunt the Bible?

Are we going to do something about all the unnatural acts occuring in nature?

You’d think DOMA would address this unacceptable situation, wouldn’t you?

Thanks for the link. The third page especially was interesting.

I’m not surprised that zoologists apply the same “innocent-until-proven-gay” model to animal behaviour that historians apply to historical figures and literature professors apply to literary characters. There seems to be a general push among academics to assert that homosexuality is simply a phenomenon of late-twentieth-century/early-twenty-first Western culture, limited to human beings, and not part of the wider human (or animal) world.

Actually, I remember reading about one academic researcher who was studying homosexual activities of butterflies, I believe it was. His research was serious, but the title of his scholarly article was firmly tongue in cheek: “An Account of Declining Moral Standards amongst the Lepitdera” [sp?]