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National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_gayanimal.html
Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate
James Owen in London
for National Geographic News
July 23, 2004
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 thingsex 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 behaviorentwining 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 femaleif 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."
