Are there animals that are gay

But he adds that homosexuality doesn't necessarily have to have a function. It could be a spin-off or by-product of something else and in itself carries no evolutionary weight. He cites sexual gratification, which encourages procreation, as an example.

In other words, if the urge to have sex is strong enough it may spill over into nonreproductive sex, as suggested by the actions of the bonobos and macaques. However, as Dunbar admits, there's a long way to go before the causes of homosexuality in humans are fully understood. He said, "Nobody's really investigated this issue thoroughly, because it's so politically sensitive. It's fair to say all possibilities are still open.

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We argue that they are not, and that they are perhaps rooted more in cultural norms than in scientific rigor. First, the costs of SSB are often assumed to be high because engaging in SSB leads individuals to waste time, energy and resources without obvious gains in fitness.

The costliness of SSB is often emphasized in comparison to the benefits of having sex with an individual of a different sex different-sex sexual behavior or DSB. While DSB can certainly lead more obviously to higher fitness through the production of offspring, these comparisons assume that DSB is highly efficient. However, animals often mate many times to produce just a few offspring, and acts of DSB frequently do not result in reproduction for a whole host of reasons.

In other words, DSB can be costly too, and it is rarely clear whether mating with an individual of the same sex is comparatively costlier than any other reason why sexual behavior may not lead to reproduction. As far as we can tell, no such evolutionary scenario has been considered for SSB. Finally, both of these assumptions underlying previous research on SSB are reinforced by a heteronormative worldview under which SSB is seen as aberrant, perhaps explaining where these assumptions came from and why they were so rarely questioned.

In our paper, we argue for a subtle shift in perspective that offers new ways of understanding the diverse and endlessly fascinating world of animal sex, including SSB. We explicitly move away from viewing SSB as aberrant or as mutually exclusive from DSB, instead acknowledging that individuals and populations of animals can engage in a spectrum of sexual behaviors that include both DSB and SSB in a vast array of combinations.

This perspective leads us to propose the following alternative scenario: what if SSB has been around since animals began to engage in sexual behavior of any kind? In our hypothesis, the ancestral animal species mated indiscriminately with regard to sex, i.

Indeed, indiscriminate mating can be more beneficial than it is costly. Mate recognition can require physiologically and cognitively costly adaptations, and being excessively discriminating in choosing mates can lead individuals to miss out on mating opportunities that lead to reproduction, a significant fitness cost. And so, we hypothesize that present-day diversity in sexual behavior in animals stems from an ancestral background of indiscriminate mating among individuals of all sexes.

In some branches of the animal tree of life, where SSB is actually quite costly, this behavior might be selected against. Scientists currently lack comprehensive knowledge of how common SSB is across species, largely because these behaviors have historically been regarded as unseemly or irrelevant and have only been recorded incidentally.

About two-thirds of homosexual activities happen among females, but also males enjoy a roll in the grass with each other. Like many birds, swans are monogamous and stick with one partner for years. Many of them choose a same-sex partner.

In fact, around 20 percent of swan couples are homosexuals - and they often start families together. Sometimes, one swan in a male couple will mate with a female, and then drive her away once she's laid a clutch of eggs. In other cases, they adopt abandoned eggs. Male walruses only reach sexual maturity at the age of 4. Until then, they are almost exclusively gay. Once they've reached maturity, most males are bisexual and mate with females during breeding season - while having sex with other males the rest of the year.

It's not just gay sex though - the males also embrace each other and sleep close to one another in water. Studies suggest that up to 8 percent of males in flocks of sheep prefer other males, even when fertile females are around.

However, this only occurs among domestic sheep. Studies have found that these homosexual sheep have a different brain structure than their heterosexual counterparts, and release less sex hormones.

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