How do the fact that there are gay/homosexual animals impact the ia that homosexualy is a s? If animals are sometim homosexual, don’t that mean homosexualy is natural?
Contents:
- MALE LN CGHT “MATG” WH MALE LN… GAY PRI? NOT QUE
- CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
- HOW DO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE GAY/HOMOSEXUAL ANIMALS IMPACT THE IA THAT HOMOSEXUALY IS A S?
- GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD
- CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
- 11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL
MALE LN CGHT “MATG” WH MALE LN… GAY PRI? NOT QUE
Zoologists are disverg that homosexual and bisexual activy is not unknown wh the animal and Silo, two male chstrap pengus at New York's Central Park Zoo have been separable for six years now. Filmmakers recently went search of homosexual wild animals as part of a Natnal Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female's role the matg game. "The homosexual behavr that go on is pletely bafflg and trigug, " says Natnal Geographic Ultimate Explorer rrponnt, Mireya Mayor.
"Well, perhaps, a roundabout way, they are seekg mal, suggts primatologist Amy argu that female maqu may enhance their social posn through homosexual timacy which turn fluenc breedg succs. Already, s of animal homosexualy have been ced succsful urt s brought agast stat like Texas, where gay sex was, until recently, scientists say we should be wary of referrg to animals when nsirg what's acceptable human society. For stance, fantici, as practiced by lns and many other animals, isn't somethg people, gay or straight, generally approve of HomosexualySo how far n we go g animals to help unrstand human homosexualy?
"The bottom le is that anythg that happens other primat, and particularly other ap, is likely to have strong evolutnary ntuy wh what happens humans, " he says the bonobo's e of homosexual activy for social bondg is a possible example, addg, "One of the ma arguments for human homosexual behavr is that helps bond male groups together, particularly where a group of dividuals are pennt on each other, as they might be huntg or warfare. However, as Dunbar adms, there's a long way to go before the of homosexualy humans are fully said, "Nobody's really vtigated this issue thoroughly, bee 's so polilly sensive. Rehgly, Alaimo not this began to shift wh the publitns of Bce Bagemihl’s Blogil Exuberance: Animal Homosexualy and Natural Diversy (1999) and Joan Roughgarn’s Evolutn’s Rabow: Diversy, Genr, and Sexualy Nature and People (2004).
CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
However, scientific quiry to such behavrs didn’t happen until relatively recently due to historilly pervasive, negative attus towards homosexualy humans.
HOW DO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE GAY/HOMOSEXUAL ANIMALS IMPACT THE IA THAT HOMOSEXUALY IS A S?
On the other hand, bee female maqu will reproduce wh mal throughout their lifetime regardls of their tert homosexual behavr, the end the relatnships do not acce any st to lifetime reproductn. In fact, no speci has actually been monstrated to show no cince of homosexual behavur at all, apart om those that don't actually have sex.
Neverthels, the topic of same-sex behavur animals, and how such behavurs may have e to evolve is a fascatg the terms ‘gay’ and ‘heterosexual’ shouldn't really be applied to animalsDpe s e our tle, terms like 'gay' or 'heterosexual’ may not be the bt to e when scribg sexual behavurs animals. Bee of this, animal ‘homosexualy’ has often been ignored, or else scientists have enavoured to fd var adaptive benefs to expla s of the adaptive explanatns clu var hypothised social benefs. Contrary to this le of thought, however, more recent terpretatns have qutned whether the paradox of animal ‘homosexualy’ is really a paradox at all.
GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD
Simply put, the fact that there are animals that exhib what we might ll homosexual behavr do not change the fact that homosexualy is a s for human begs.
(Image cred: © Chris Johnson – earthOCEAN)Homosexualy has been documented more than 450 speci of vertebrat signalg that sexual preference is blogilly termed animals. Mal also take to homosexual play but tend to leave their partner soon after, makg what we ll the human world a one night stand.
(Image cred: © Chris Johnson – earthOCEAN)Homosexual activy occurs wh about the same equency as heterosexual play amongst the mare mammals. [See more pictur of dolphs]BisonHomosexual mountg between mal tends to be more mon than heterosexual female-male pulatn among Amerin bison, pecially bee femal only mate wh the bulls about once a year.
CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
(Image cred: Geoff Shter)Splashg around the water is brought to a pletely new level gray whal, where homosexual teractns are que mon. And fact, there was one of the foremost sheep rearchers, Valeri Geist, who studied bighorn sheep the 1960s - he was the wild observg the bighorns and saw that they basilly live entirely homosexual society until the age of 6 or 7.
*Note: We tentnally do not e terms such as “heterosexual” or “homosexual” to prevent any nflatn between human sexualy and nonhuman animal sexual behavrs. More than 200 years later, rearch has moved past some of the taboos those early rearchers faced and shown that homosexualy is much more mon than prevly thought. Rearchers are now gog beyond jt observg though, wh rearchers at Imperial leadg the way unravellg how, and why, homosexualy is found across nature.
This suggts that homosexual activy is not a recent human nstct, cultural or even evolutnary terms, but stead occurs along many branch on the tree of life.
11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL
Female homosexualy has been well studied Japane maqu, but Clive's rearch would exame how homosexual behavur differs mal and across environments. Rerdg homosexual behavur the wild and llectg blood sampl are the first steps for Clive; the next is sequencg DNA to search for nnectns between the behavur and geic markers. This ia stemmed om a study showg a rrelatn between geic marker Xq28 and male homosexualy, although there were statistil uncertati about some of the fdgs.
Then they n see what this should look like the real blogil and heredary factors of homosexualy are most certaly not tied to a sgle gene. The explanatns are not exclive of one another, and is likely that a batn of factors are important for the evolutn of homosexualy.
Importantly, this will clu exploratn of homosexual partners the hope of unrstandg different mate-choice strategi reproductive and non-reproductive ntexts. Versluys says: "Homosexualy is still somethg that's not always well unrstood among the scientific muny and maybe even more poorly unrstood among the general populatn.