Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

House Sparrow/Cowbird (Griffin 1959); Savanna Baboon (Marais 1922/1969:214-18); Kestrel (Olsen 1985). Regarding the House Sparrow/Cowbird case, a number of subsequent researchers (e.g., Selander and LaRue 1961; Rothstein 1980) have also interpreted this behavior as “aggression” or “appeasement.” Aside from the fact that the activity involving homosexual mounting is not identical to strictly “aggressive” or “preening invitation” displays in Cowbirds (cf. Laskey 1950), a “nonsexual” interpretation cannot explain why Cowbirds “tolerate” homosexual mountings from Sparrows and even actively solicit them. Moreover, the function(s) of these “head-down” displays remain controversial and speculative independent of any homosexual activity (cf. Scott and Grumstrup-Scott 1983). Specific arguments against an “aggressive” or “appeasement” interpretation of these types of behaviors (regardless of whether any same-sex mounting is involved) are presented in Verbeek, N. A. M., R. W. Butler, and H. Richardson (1981) “Interspecific Allopreening Solicitation in Female Brewer’s Blackbirds,” Condor 83:179—80. A parallel example involves Stonor (1937:88), who “reinterprets” Selous’s (1906—7) early descriptions of homosexual mountings by female Ruffs as involving heterosexual activity by “female-plumaged” males. More recent observers (e.g., Hogan-Warburg 1966, van Rhijn 1991) have corroborated Selous’s original observations, confirming not only the existence of both female and male homosexual activity, but also “female plumaged” males (i,e., the so-called naked-nape males) that participate in homosexuality.

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Chaffinch (Marjakangas 1981); Regent Bowerbird (Phillipps 1905; Marshall 1954). Similarly, early reports of courtship activity between male Swallow-tailed Manakins by Sick (1959, 1967) were discounted by Foster (1981:174), who tried to claim that the younger male birds being courted by adult males were actually females that had malelike plumage or were male observers or participants in nonsexual aggressive displays. However, Sick (1959:286) verified the male sex of these birds by dissecting them, and he stated explicitly (Sick 1967:17) that no aggression was involved in the displays. Moreover, it is clear from his descriptions (Sick 1959:286) that the display type that Foster (1981) claimed was aggressive occurs in the absence of younger males, not in their presence. Foster’s categorization of such displays as aggressive also appears to be based primarily on the fact that they occur between males, rather than on any inherent differences in the behaviors: as Foster (1981:172; 1984:58) admits, such displays are “extremely similar to” and “strongly reminiscent” of courtship behaviors. That Foster was unable to directly observe courtship displays of the type that Sick reported between males may also be due to geographic or subspecies differences in behaviors: Sick studied a population in Brazil while Foster observed birds in Paraguay. Other elements of the courtship displays between the two populations do appear to differ significantly, such as the vocalizations used and the direction in which males fly during the display (in Brazil, the male farthest from the courted bird begins the courtship “wheel,” while in Paraguay the bird closest to the courted bird begins). It should also be pointed out that Snow (1963) independently observed courtship between males in the closely related Blue-backed Manakin.

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Vasey “Homosexual Behavior in Primates,” p. 197; for a similar observation, see Wolfe, “Human Evolution and the Sexual Behavior of Female Primates,” p. 130.

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Hyde, H. M. (1970) The Love That Dared Not Speak Its Name: A Candid History of Homosexuality in Britain, p. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company).

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Killer Whale (Balcomb et al. 1979:23); published version: Balcomb, K. C., III, J. R. Boran, R. W. Osborne, and N. J. Haenel (1980) “Observations of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Greater Puget Sound, State of Washington,” report no. MMC-78/13 to U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, NTIS# PB80-224728. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce).

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Musk-ox (Smith 1976; Tener 1965; Reinhardt 1985); Walrus (Miller 1976); Harbor Seal (Johnson 1974, 1976; Johnson and Johnson 1977).

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Halls, L. K., ed., (1984) White-tailed Deer: Ecology and Management (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books); Gerlach, D., S. Atwater, and J. Schnell, eds., (1994) Deer (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books); Jones, M. L., S. L. Swartz, and S. Leatherwood, eds., (1984) The Gray Whale, Eschrictius robustus (Orlando: Academic Press). In contrast, a similarly comprehensive book on Mule Deer does mention homosexual activity (Geist 1981), as does another volume on White-tailed Deer (Rue 1989).

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