Avi Roy writes in this apolitical article about new evidences that suggest that same-sex behavior in the animal kingdom is much more common than was earlier thought and includes not just sexual acts, but preening and coupling too.
Out In Nature
When we talk about sexual behaviors, homosexuality in special, the first thing that pops in our mind are probably not flies, frogs, dolphins and other members of the animal kingdom. However a research by scientists of the University of California, Riverside, led by Nathan Bailey, published in the journal General Trends of Ecology and Evolution suggests that homosexual behaviors like grooming, preening or even coupling is actually common in several of these animals. Such behavior directed toward the same sex has been noted in a variety of animals, including dolphins, sheep, penguins and bonobos. He defined same sex sexual behavior as “…any behavior that members of the same sex engage in, that members of opposite sex also engage in, in the context of reproduction.”
As such, such behavior could range from courtship to preening to actual copulation. In fact, in some insects like the fruit fly, this can take the form of males courting other males by preening to them; which is a contrast to others animals like the albatross (a sea bird) whose females form long term bonds with other females and make nest together so that they can lay eggs together and rear them, suggesting a wide variety of behavior. Asked that why such animals engage in the acts when it does not lead to reproduction, Bailey clarify that “… sex isn’t always about reproduction…” even in opposite sex interactions that look sexual on the surface can have other functions like pair bonding or they could be involved in dominance or aggressive interaction. In bonobos in particular such behavior is aimed at resolving conflicts between males, whereas in albatross, it goes to the extent of same sex parenthood. Hence, same sex behaviors in animals are not necessarily aimed at reproduction.
In a far removed example of the fruit flies, the behavior takes place in wild surroundings where the male attempts to copulate with other males. It is found that sexual behavior in fruit flies is associated with certain sex specific peptides and genes, which when removed from the flies; they tend to court or mate other males. Clearly, behavior of the birds contradicted the notion that homosexuality is ‘unnatural.’ For many this isn’t just an academic subject and therefore, leaving political or religious concerns away, Bailey states that genome wide scans have looked into the genetic architecture of sexual orientation in human beings, to find that such behavior in humans are related to certain chromosomal locations. He further accomplishes that same sex behavior in humans is actually shaped by evolutionary processes.
