Is Larry Bird Gay? That's a Big No - Sports Nostalgia HQ

WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY

* bird 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.

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

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.

CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?

They foced on the 93 bird speci whose homosexual teractns scientists had seen the wild. For each speci, the team lculated the equency of homosexual behavr as well as both sex' ntributns to parentg.

Overall, homosexual behavr amounted to ls than 5 percent of all sexual activy the 93 speci, though some s was much higher. And sure enough, there was a strong rrelatn between a speci' matg system and s homosexual behavr. 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.

IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS

"That's que different to what the tradnal argument is the lerature, where homosexual behavr is seen as a st. "In some s, homosexual allianc may even be adaptive, helpg dividuals fend terrori, advance their social stat, or get help wh parental re.

Metal may fluence sexual velopment whe ibis, expert birds that eat mercury-ntamated food show "surprisg" homosexual behavr, scientists have a recent experiment ptive whe ibis, many of the mal exposed to the metal chose other mal as "male-male pairs did everythg that a heterosexual pair would do, " said study lear Peter Frerick, a wildlife elogist at the Universy of Florida Gaville. A fourth ntrol group ate mercury-ee the birds had reached sexual matury at around a year old, homosexual bondg creased all three groups exposed to mercury.

CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?

")The blogil mechanism for how the metal homosexual actns is not totally unrstood, Frerick add. Mercury Mysteri RemaMany unknowns rema about the study and mercury's effects, Frerick team did not have fundg, for example, to exame whether takg mercury out of the birds' diets would stop the homosexual "my spicn is none of the effects we saw are likely to be permanent, " Frerick said. "There's a great tenncy to extrapolate this study an offhand fashn to mean, Oh if you eat mercury, you're gog to be gay, " he addn, the rearchers n't say for sure whether homosexual behavr occurs wild birds exposed to mercury.