Lbian Albatross and Gay Giraff? The Science on Same-Sex Sexualy Animals | Audubon

Contents:

• WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
• IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS
• LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS
• CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
• CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?
• THE WCHER WAS SUPER GAY WAY BEFORE SEASON 3

WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY

They're not alone: More than 130 bird speci are known to engage homosexual behavr at least ocsnally, a fact that has puzzled all, evolutnary terms same-sex matg seems to rce the birds' chanc of reproductive succs.

In some speci the same-sex pairs even raise young (nceived wh outsi partners, obvly) and stay together for several 2007, a team led by Geoff MacFarlane, a blogist at the Universy of Newstle Atralia, reported that male homosexual behavr was more mon polygyno bird speci, where mal mate wh numero femal, and that female homosexual behavr was more mon monogamo speci. Srg sexTo fd out whether the theory might extend to homosexual behavr, MacFarlane and his team exhstively bed the lerature for acunts of same-sex urtship, mountg, or pair bondg.

The balance shifted to femal socially monogamo speci, where the sex spl the work more far, female homosexualy hasn't turned up the handful of birds where each female mat wh many mal, but MacFarlane's team predicts may. "Homosexual behavr is more likely to be mataed and not be selected agast than if you are a sex that r a lot for offsprg and only has one or few reproductive partners, " he wh plenty of reproductive prospects, a ltle homosexual behavr won't have much effect on long-term reproductive succs, MacFarlane said. "In some s, homosexual allianc may even be adaptive, helpg dividuals fend terrori, advance their social stat, or get help wh parental re.

IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS

Sce a major drive the animal kgdom is to reproduce, and bee homosexualy do not serve this functn, we may assume that there is no place for same-sex relatnships. The evince of homosexual behavr birds and other animals has been ntroversial certa nservative quarters where a moral argument agast human homosexualy is prevalent. Rearch bias related to the beliefs may be the reason that only sce the 1990s has homosexualy birds has been officially observed on a large sle.

The fact that many bird speci are not sexually dimorphic, meang both sex look intil, has also been a factor the abily to aquately study homosexualy wild birds. Arguments have been ma that homosexual behavr do not further the survival of the speci and therefore is unter-productive to s long-term viabily. Acrdg to, a study nducted by wildlife elogists at the Universy of Florida Gaville found that elevated levels of mercury led to an crease homosexual behavr whe ibis.

Based on the rearch nducted and the observatns of both wild and ptive birds, there is a chance that your bird or birds are ed gay.

LBIAN ALBATROSS AND GAY GIRAFF? THE SCIENCE ON SAME-SEX SEXUALY ANIMALS

" a 2006 exhibn at the Norwegian Natural History Mm of the Universy of Oslo that ed mols, photos, texts, and specimens (like the swans to the right) to rm visors about a small selectn of "gay" animals. Bonobos, one of our clost relativ, may be the most well-known homosexual whal, bottlenose dolphs, Wt Indian manate, and giraff are known to have all-male i.

But rearchers have no ia what the advantage is, if any, of homosexual behavr among dragonfli, srab beetl, or, as observed at least once, two male octop of different speci.

CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?

Wh most speci, homosexual sex has been documented only sporadilly, and there appear to be few s of dividual animals who engage exclively. ” But the journal that published the paper, Blogy Letters, sent out a prs release a few days after the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?

” A gay rights advote e-mailed Young, askg her to fly a rabow flag above each female-female nt, to intify them and show solidary. In 1999, Bagemihl published “Blogil Exuberance, ” a book that pulled together a lossal amount of prev piecemeal rearch and showed how blogists’ bias had margalized animal homosexualy for the last 150 years — sometim nocently enough, sometim an eptn of anthropomorphic disgt.

Given this big umbrella of theory, the very existence of homosexual behavr animals n feel a ltle like imperable nonsense, somethg a rearcher uld spend years bangg his or her head agast the wall liberatg. The difficulty of that challenge, more than any implic or explic homophobia, may be why past blogists skirted the THE LAST DECADE, however, Pl Vasey and others have begun velopg new hypoth based on actual, prolonged observatn of different animals, cipherg the ways given homosexual behavrs may have evolved and the evolutnary role they might play wh the ntext of dividual speci.

So far, the only real ncln this relatively small body of lerature seems to pot to, llectively, is a kd of flatg, meta-ncln: a sgle explanatn of homosexual behavr animals may not be possible, bee thkg of “homosexual behavr animals” as a sgle scientific subject might not make much sense. But we’re quick to nceive of that great range of activi the way most handily tracks to our anthropomorphic pot of view: put crassly, all those different animals jt seem to be dog gay sex stuff wh one another. ”Somethg siar may be happeng wh what we perceive to be homosexual sex an array of animal speci: we may be groupg together a big grab bag of behavrs based on only a superficial siary.

THE WCHER WAS SUPER GAY WAY BEFORE SEASON 3

The Stanford blogist Joan Roughgarn told me to thk of all the animals as “multaskg” wh their private ’s also possible that some homosexual behavrs don’t provi a nventnal evolutnary advantage; but neher do they upend everythg we know about blogy. As Z put , “There’s a lot of slop the system — which, ” she was sure to add, “is not the same as sayg homosexualy is a mistake.

Young’s hband, a blogil nsultant, was actually an thor of the paper, along wh Brenda Zn (who is also not gay, for what ’s worth). Young found the assumptn offensive — not bee she was beg mistaken for gay, but bee she was beg mistaken for a bad scientist; the people seemed to prume that her rearch was promised by a personal agenda.