Gayness in the Animal Kingdom
A new exhibit at the Oslo Natural History Museum showcases examples of homosexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom. Geir Soeli explained the motivation behind the exhibit:
“As homosexual people are often confronted with the argument that their way of living is against the principles of nature, we thought that … as a scientific institution, we could at least show that this is not true … You can think whatever you want about homosexuals but you cannot use that argument because it is very natural, it’s very common in animal kingdom.”
There are two examples of homosexual behavior in animals that I’m familiar with. One is bonobos, a species of primate closely related to humans. They use sex the way chimps use violenceâ€â€which is to say, as one of their main forms of social interaction. The second example is when male rats are overcrowded in a cage, although that seems to explain what happens in prisons more than normal homosexuality. So it was interesting to read about other examples, especially from non-primates. As Soeli said, homosexuality is very normal.
Tags: homosexuality, Science
October 29th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
And Oscar’s attempts at Ollie
Bonobos are lesbians, right?
October 30th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Bonobos have both male-male and female-female sex. They have a matriarchal society, and the females use sex to solidify social bonds. This is also interesting (from Wikipedia): “Bonobos are the only non-human apes to have been observed engaging in all of the following sexual activities: face-to-face genital sex (most frequently female-female, then male-female and male-male), tongue kissing, and oral sex.”