Contents:
- WHY IT'S OK FOR BIRDS TO BE GAY
- IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS
- CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?
- CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
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. 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.
IS MY BIRD GAY? INFORMATN ABOUT HOMOSEXUAL BIRDS AND PARROTS
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. "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. 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.
CAN BIRDS BE GAY? DO BIRDS SHOW HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVR?
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. There have also been theori put forth that homosexual behavr ptive birds is due to the unnatural ndns which they live. 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.
CAN ANIMALS BE GAY?
His ncln is that the ls effort a bird puts to parentg, the more time has to engage homosexual activi. Rerds of 93 speci of birds that exhib homosexualy the wild were analyzed by the rearch team.
This has been put forth as an explanatn for homosexual behavr that do not negatively impact the birds’ abily to reproduce. Reasons for engagg homosexual activy range om practicg urtship display, formg allianc, or rcg social tensns.