Lesbian albatrosses, gay giraffes and some very open-minded penguins. So, can animals really be gay?
By Zoe Brennan
Last updated at 11:44 PM on 17th May 2010
As the two birds gently entwine their heads, their soft, downy necks form a heart shape. They are, quite literally, a pair of love birds – Laysan albatrosses, reunited after months apart.
These seabirds, with a seven-foot wingspan and curved yellow beaks, soar over the oceans as far north as Alaska every November, after six months alone, before meeting at Kaena Point.
This rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific in Oahu, Hawaii, is their ancestral breeding ground. It is here they return to mate and put on the world’s greatest display of monogamy.
Love birds: A study has found many albatrosses appear to be gay
Love birds: A study has found many albatrosses appear to be gay
Albatrosses can live until they are 70 years old and it’s said they make a lifelong commitment to one bird. They incubate their egg together for 65 days, taking turns to find food.
Indeed, former American first lady Laura Bush once hailed the bird as a mascot for pro-family Republicans. But a new study has emerged – and it is sure to shock Mrs Bush.
For all is not how it seems on Kaena Point. A biologist studying the 120-strong albatross colony at the University of Hawaii has ruffled quite a few feathers with her extraordinary discovery. She has found that many of the albatrosses appear to be, well …gay.
Lindsay Young, who has worked on Oahu since 2003, has discovered that a third of the pairs at Kaena Point consist of two female birds.
The albatrosses have previously pulled the wool over conservationists’ eyes with their cosy cuddling – as the two sexes look identical.
According to Young, who used DNA analysis to genetically test the birds’ gender, some of the female pairs have been together for up to 19 years – as far back as biologists’ data extends.
In that time, these same-sex partnerships raised dozens of chicks. It seems the females choose a male to father their chicks, but then return to their nests to incubate them with their ‘wives’.
A biologist claims homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 species
Nuzzling: A biologist claims homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 species
‘This colony is literally the largest proportion of . . . I don’t know what the correct term is – “homosexual animals?” – in the world,’ says Young.
Her revelations turn our knowledge of the animal kingdom upside down and begs the question: can animals be gay?’
In fact, same-sex sexual activity has been recorded in more than 450 species from flamingos to bison, beetles to warthogs, according to Jon Mooallem, who has written in The New York Times on the subject.
He says: ‘A female koala might force herself on another female, while male Amazon River dolphins have been known to get amorous.’ Male orangutangs are also rather open-minded.
Such observations have been seen by scientists as an inconvenience, Mooallem says – usually tacked onto research papers as a curiosity.
‘Biologists tried to explain what they’d seen as an isolated glitch in an otherwise elegant Darwinian universe where an animal’s sexual behaviour is geared toward reproducing.’
Gay-rights campaigners have seized on evidence of animal homosexuality as proof that same-sex couples are a natural occurrence.
In his book, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity, Bruce Bagemihl documents cases of homosexual animals.
A gay biologist at the University of Wisconsin in the U.S., he argues against ‘heterosexist bias’, where researchers presume animals are heterosexual.
He claims homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 species, and well-documented in 500 of these.
His examples come from species as diverse as the giraffe, the butterfly and the manatee – large marine mammals, who engage in a huge, excitable, and same sex, frenzy.
But zoologist Petter Bockman, an expert on the subject at the University of Oslo, dismisses those who draw political implications from the scientific findings.
He says: ‘If you ask: “Can animals be gay?” The short answer is: “Yes.” “Gay” is a human word, however, so we prefer to use the word “homosexual” for animals.
‘Sexuality is not just about making babies, it is also about making the flock work. For some animals, homosexuality is normal flock behaviour.’
He says the issue has long been taboo for researchers who are ‘fearful of being ridiculed by their colleagues’.
Open-minded: Research shows around a fifth of all king penguin couples kept in captivity are gay
Open-minded: Research shows around a fifth of all king penguin couples kept in captivity are gay
Farmers often come across male cows and sheep that simply refuse to mate with females, he claims, and, in 2004, Charles Roselli at the Ohio Health and Science University reported that about eight per cent of domestic rams prefer other males.
Bockman has curated an exhibition Against Nature’s Order for the Norwegian Natural History Museum. One Pentecostal minister told him he would ‘burn in hell’ for his work.
Another said the money would be better spent ‘curing gay animals’.
The controversial exhibition shows pictures of a pair of swans – the symbols of romantic love – who turned out to be a female couple.
Meanwhile, research shows around a fifth of all king penguin couples kept in captivity are gay. Zoo animals are more likely to show homosexual activity than wild animals – scientists believe this could be because of a lack of choice in other mates.
So why do animals indulge in homosexuality?
Well, it seems there are many reasons. In tribal animals, homosexuality sometimes takes on a social role – occupying unwanted males or bonding male members of the pack.
In other species, the reasons are less clear. ‘Birds are really complicated,’ says Bockman. ‘What goes on in birds’ brains is anyone’s guess.’
Male black swans will often bring up cygnets together – involving females only in the initial breeding process. This could be because males are better able to protect the young.
Bockman ponders: ‘Does this make them gay?’ Nobody knows. ‘It is the same with octopi and gut worms, who both have same-sex intercourse. What’s going on there? As a zoologist, I can tell you: We have no idea.’
The dancing fly, often seen swirling over the lawn on a summer’s day, will force itself on another male. This means when the victim mates with a female, she is impregnated with both his sperm and that of the other male.
Bear hug: Gay-rights campaigners have seized on evidence of animal homosexuality as proof that same-sex couples are a natural occurrence
Bear hug: Gay-rights campaigners have seized on evidence of animal homosexuality as proof that same-sex couples are a natural occurrence
Male dung flies are more straightforward – in as much as they appear to single out and dally with other males solely in order to tire them out and make sure they are not in competition with them for females.
Professor Paul Harvey, head of zoology at the University of Oxford, told me: ‘Perhaps the males need to group together to ward off predators. Or maybe the females have no choice but to get together if there are not enough males?
‘And so the question persists. Does homosexual pairing make animals truly gay?
Or are they waiting for a spare mate or practising for when they will be heterosexual? What we can say is the vast majority of birds and mammals are heterosexual.’
He demystifies the political debate over whether animal homosexuality means it is ‘natural’ to be gay, saying: ‘It is a huge mistake to think studying homosexuality in animals gives us a greater understanding of human behaviour. If you want to know why humans are gay, ask a human.’
Dr Antonio Pardo, professor of bioethics at the University of Navarre, Spain, explains: ‘Homosexuality does not exist in animals. For survival reasons, the reproductive instinct in animals is always directed towards an individual of the opposite sex.
‘Nevertheless, the interaction of other instincts, such as dominance, can result in behaviour that appears to be homosexual.’
The academic Paul L Vasey, of the University of Lethbridge in Canada, says we shouldn’t take animal behaviour as a blueprint for humans.
He says: ‘We shouldn’t be using animals to craft moral and social policy for human societies.
‘Animals don’t take care of the elderly. I don’t think that should be a platform for closing down nursing homes.’
Despite the controversy, it is perhaps predictable that St Matthew In The City, an Anglican church in Auckland, New Zealand, which holds ‘gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender services’, has adopted a mural of Noah’s Ark to advertise its presence.
Taken from British designer Clifford Richard’s original 1970 illustration, it reads: ‘Welcoming Two of Every Kind’.
And Tango Makes Three, a controversial children’s book about gay penguins, has been banned in many American libraries.
As for the Laysan albatrosses, they are preparing to take flight, yet again, on their lonely journey over Alaska – totally oblivious to the fuss they are causing.
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