Can animals be gay?

11 ANIMAL SPECI THAT PROVE BEG GAY IS NATURAL

Photo: Julia Zavalisha (Shutterstock)There are still people out there who thk that beg gay is “unnatural, ” but they uldn’t be more wrong. It’s been observed more than 1, 500 animal speci, om sects and other vertebrat, right up the evolutnary ladr to primat and the most part, we’re not sure why—what evolutnary advantage do homosexual uplg provi to dolphs (other than happier dolphs)?

5 ANIMAL SPECI THAT ARE TOTALLY GAY

What’s really unnatural is that so many people still assume animals adhere to the “moral” of a small number of humans—so if you happen to n to anyone like that, pot them to this list of the 11 most gay animals on Sergey Uryadnikov (Shutterstock)Bonobos, a speci of great ap native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are the hippi of the animal kgdom.

In parison, female giraff only get by wh other femal about 1% of the Jaroslav Seker (Shutterstock)Both male and female lns have been observed exhibg homosexual behavr. Sce funerary practic were so important to the ancient people, probably wasn’t an accint, and scientists speculate that uld have been bee he was gay or trans. ” Garter snak, gopher snak, and rattlnak all exhib “queer” behavr of var typ, but the gayt of all are flower pot snak, all of whom are female.

GAY ANIMALS: ALTERNATE LIFTYL THE WILD

Over the past 20 years, a burst of rearch — driven part by a new generatn of scientists more acceptg of queerns — has shown signifint amounts of prevly unreported homosexual behavr throughout the animal kgdom, om flour beetl to gorillas. Thirteenth-century philosopher and prit Thomas Aquas argued that homosexual behavr humans is wrong precisely bee don’t occur between animals.

Gee Murray Levick, the explorer who wrote about homosexual behavr Adélie pengus 1911, shield his observatns of pengu “pravy” om sual observers by rerdg them his field not g the Greek alphabet — and they were still cut om the official expedn reports. A proment mammalogist, Valeri Geist, uldn’t help but notice equent homosexual sex at his bighorn sheep field se the 1960s, but Geist avoid publishg those fdgs bee ma him “crge … to nceive of those magnificent beasts as ‘queers. The fact that a bird populatn wh many bond femal sharg a few mal between them would have higher reproductive output led historian and ornhologist Jared Diamond to dryly wonr whether “further study of homosexually paired female birds may help clarify what, if anythg, mal are good for — an evolutnary sense, of urse.

” In social animals, the logic go, absolute homosexualy would produce no offsprg, but absolute heterosexualy uld also be limg, as might make for an anism that is “poor at formg social allianc. “The bisexual advantage mol, ” Savolaen nclus, “is perhaps the most nservative geic explanatn for the persistence of homosexual behavr. Therefore, aversn to homosexual sex would have had to specifilly arise over the history of life, which this team of rearchers fds unlikely, sce the opportuny st of same-sex sex is relatively low.

THE GAYT SEEMG ANIMALS

The bonobo ap, for example, palize on the release of the bondg hormone oxytoc durg homosexual sex to strengthen the social allianc between femal.

Vasey and his team methodilly tted the var theori that have been proposed for the persistence of homosexual sex the monkeys: that the femal were exprsg domance; that they were barterg for parental re; that they were rencilg after a fight; or (my personal favore) that they were stagg sexual enunters to exce nearby mal, what I’d ll the “you wish, guys” theory of monkey lbianism. Sodomy laws stayed on the books until 2003, when the Supreme Court led them unnstutnal — aid by an amic brief cg the rearch that had e out the meantime documentg homosexual activy among might have known about the sheer diversy of animal sexualy a long time ago if we, as a culture, had managed to lower our blrs. Regardls of what your sixth gra relign teacher may have said, homosexual activy is natural and the overwhelmg majory of animals are queer.

So, why are people still shocked that human begs (who are also members of the animal kgdom) engage homosexual behavr as well?! In fact, female and male bonobos engage homosexual behavr to cement social bonds, velop relatnships wh more domant group members and climb the social ladr. “There’s a whole range of behavrs that f well wh how evolutn happens that now clu homosexual behavr, ” says Marlene Z of the Universy of Mnota Sat Pl.

You probably wouldn't have learned about blogy class, but homosexual behavur is very mon all across the animal kgdom (some zoologists timate that about 1, 500 animal speci are known to display some form of ).

A first-ever mm display, "Agast Nature?, " which opened last month at the Universy of Oslo's Natural History Mm Norway, prents 51 speci of animals exhibg homosexualy. "Homosexualy has been observed more than 1, 500 speci, and the phenomenon has been well scribed for 500 of them, " said Petter Bockman, project ordator of the ia, however, is rarely discsed the scientific muny and is often dismissed as unnatural bee don't appear to benef the larger e of speci ntuatn. " was set up partly to mystify the argument that a homosexual way of livg nnot be accepted bee is agast the "laws of nature" n now be rejected scientifilly, said Geir Soli, project lear for the exhibn.

"To learn more, see LiveScience's Top 10 prentatn, Gay Animals: Alternate Liftyl the Really Wild StoriSpir Cri Out While MatgThe Paful Reali of Hyena SexSalmon of Small Stature Endowed wh Matg AdvantageWell-fed Crickets Seek Sex Incsantly, Die YoungMystery of Empty Chicken Sex SolvedSmart Bats Have Smaller Tticl.