Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Dagg, A. I. (1984) “Homosexual Behavior and Female-Male Mounting in Mammals—a First Survey,” Mammal Review 14:155-85; Vasey, “Homosexual Behavior in Primates”; Vasey 1996, 1998 (Japanese Macaque); Vasey, P. L. (in press) “Homosexual Behavior in Male Birds,” “Homosexual Behavior in Male Primates,” in W. R. Dynes, ed., Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 2nd ed., vol. 1: Male Homosexuality (New York: Garland Press). See also the recent bibliography: Williams, J. B. (1992) Homosexuality in Nonhuman Primates: A Bibliography: 1940—1992 (Seattle: Primate Information Center). For descriptions of animal homosexuality that are relatively value neutral (i.e., that do not view homosexual behavior as inherently problematic), or for accounts that are not overly concerned with finding a “cause” or “explanation” for the behavior, see, for example, Yeager 1990a (Proboscis Monkey); Marlow 1975 (Australian, New Zealand Sea Lions); Sowls 1974, 1984 (Collared Peccary); Schaller 1967 (Blackbuck, Barasingha); Braithwaite 1981 (Black Swan); King 1994 (Flamingo); Riddiford 1995 (Common Gull); Smith 1988 (Lyrebird); Neelakantan 1962 (Black-rumped Flameback); and Rogers and McCulloch 1981, Rowley 1990 (Galah). For descriptions of homosexual activity that recognize it as a routine or “normal” behavioral phenomenon, see Porton and White 1996 (Gorilla); Akers and Conaway 1979 (Rhesus Macaque); Eaton 1978, Fedigan 1982, Wolfe 1984, 1986, Chapais and Mignault 1991, Vasey 1996 (Japanese Macaque); Chevalier-Skolnikoff 1976 (Stumptail Macaque); Wells et al. 1987, Wells 1991, Wells et al. 1998 (Bottlenose Dolphin); Rose 1992 (Killer Whale); Hartman 1971, 1979 (West Indian Manatee); Lott 1983 (American Bison); and Coe 1967 (Giraffe). In addition, a number of zoologists in their personal communications with me have been refreshingly free of the negative judgments or interpretations that unfortunately characterize most of the field; among them, B. J. Ens (Oystercatchers), C. B. Frith (Birds of Paradise), M. Fujioka (Egrets), M. Fukuda (Great Cormorants), D. Heg (Oystercatchers), D. L. Herzing (Dolphins), C. E. King (Flamingos), W. D. Koenig (Acorn Woodpeckers), D. F. Lott (American Bison), M. Martys (Greylag Geese), M. G. L. Mills (Spotted Hyenas), C. Reed (Crested Black Macaques), S. Savage-Rumbaugh (Bonobos), C. J. Scholten (Humboldt Penguins), L. H. Smith (Superb Lyrebirds), Y. Sugiyama (primates), and P. L. Vasey (Japanese Macaques, other species).

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While the word homophobia means, literally, an irrational fear of homosexuality, the term is also applied to instances of disgust, revulsion, hatred, or open hostility, as well as more subtle prejudicial feelings of discomfort, distaste, or dislike toward homosexuality or homosexual individuals (not necessarily accompanied by fear). For more discussion and further references on the nature and consequences of homophobia, see Blumenfeld, W. J., ed. (1992) Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Boston: Beacon Press).

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Ruff (Selous 1906—7:420, 423); American Bison (McHugh 1958:25); Waterbuck (Spinage 1982:118).

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The appellations abnormal, aberrant, unnatural, or perverted, for example, have been applied by scientists to homosexual behavior or transgender in at least 30 different species of mammals and birds (often in multiple sources for each species), and as recently as the mid-1980s in some published accounts (Kittiwake [Coulson and Thomas 1985:20]; Bighorn Sheep [Berger 1985]). Even more recently (Finley et al. 1997:914—15, 917), same-sex courtship and sexual activity in Fruit Flies (as well as refusal of heterosexual advances) have been characterized as “abnormal,” “aberrant,” and a “defect,” and similar terms have also been used by some zoologists in their personal communications with me. Somewhat less derogatory designations such as odd (including odd couples), peculiar, irregular, or bizarre have been used to describe homosexuality or transgender in at least 15 other species of mammals and birds. Many other examples can of course be found in descriptions of reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, and other creatures. Heterosexual behaviors or individuals are characterized as “normal” in opposition to homosexual behaviors or individuals in the following published scientific sources, among others: Common Chimpanzee (Adang et al. 1987:242); Gorilla (Harcourt 1988:59); Kob (Buechner and Schloeth 1965:2219); Canada Goose (Collias and Jahn 1959:484); Black-winged Stilt (Kitagawa 1988a:64); Black-headed Gull (van Rhijn and Groothuis 1985:161); Lovebirds (Dilger 1960:667); Hooded Warbler (Niven 1994:192); Ostrich (Sauer 1972:729).

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