Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

For more extensive discussion of the full complexity and diversity of lesbian butch-femme, see Nestle, J. (1981) “Butch-Fem Relationships: Sexual Courage in the 1950’s,” Heresies No. 12, 3(4):21-24; Nestle, J., ed. (1992) The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (Boston: Alyson); Burana, L., Roxxie, and L. Due, eds. (1994) Dagger: On Butch Women (Pittsburgh and San Francisco: Cleis Press); Newman, L. (1995) The Femme Mystique (Boston: Alyson); Pratt, M. B. (1995) S/HE (Ithaca: Firebrand Books); Harris, L., and E. Crocker, eds. (1997) Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls (New York: Routledge).

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Australian Shelduck (Riggert 1977:60-61); Ring-billed Gull (Conover and Hunt 1984a); Mute Swan (Kear 1972:85-86); Mountain Sheep (Geist 1971:162); Bottlenose Dolphin (Tavolga 1966:729—30); Killer Whale (Rose 1992:112); White-handed Gibbon (Edwards and Todd 1991:234); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:107-8); Hanuman Langur (Srivastava et al. 1991:508—9); Asiatic Elephant (Ramachandran 1984); Lion (Chavan 1981); Sage Grouse (Scott 1942:488).

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For explicit rejection of (and evidence against) the shortage hypothesis by various zoologists studying animal homosexuality, see Gorilla (Harcourt et al. 1981:276); Japanese Macaque (Fedigan and Gouzoules 1978:494; Vasey 1996:550, 1998:17); Rhesus Macaque (Akers and Conaway 1979:77); Flamingo (King 1994:107); Common Gull (Riddiford 1995:112); Jackdaw (Röell 1978:103); Galah (Rogers and McCulloch 1981:90; Rowley 1990:59-60).

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Orang-utan (Rijksen 1978:259); Japanese Macaque (Vasey 1996 and personal communication; Corradino 1990:360; Wolfe 1984); Stumptail Macaque (Chevalier-Skolikoff 1976:520); Rhesus Macaque (Akers and Conaway 1979:76–77); Common Gull (Riddiford 1995:112); Black-headed Gull (van Rhijn 1985:91–93); King Penguin (Murphy 1936:340—41); Galah (Rogers and McCulloch 1981:90; Rowley 1990:59–60).

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Bottlenose Dolphin (Ostman 1991:310); Squirrel Monkey (Mendoza and Mason 1991:476–77; Travis and Holmes 1974:55, 63); Bonobo (Kano 1992:149; Savage-Rumbaugh and Wilkerson 1979:338); Stumptail Macaque (Chevalier-Skolikoff 1976:524); Savanna (Yellow) Baboon (Maxim and Buettner-Janusch 1963:176); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:101, 106); Pukeko (Jamieson and Craig 1987a:1251); Common Murre (Birkhead et al. 1985:614); Sociable Weaver (Collias and Collias 1980b:248); Bonnet Macaque (Sugiyama 1971:252, 259—60); Japanese Macaque (Vasey 1996:543 and personal communication). Homosexual mounting rates can also be independent of the presence of animals of the opposite sex: in an all-female group of Pig-tailed Macaques, for example, the rate of same-sex mounting was virtually identical both before and after introduction of a male into the group (Giacoma and Messeri 1992:183 [table I]). The finding of a positive correlation between homosexual and heterosexual rates is paralleled by some data on humans in sex-segregated environments. Researchers found that married men in prisons who receive conjugal visits with their wives are actually more likely to have sex with other male prisoners than men without conjugal visits (Wooden, W. S., and J. Parker [1982] Men Behind Bars: Sexual Exploitation in Prison, pp. 55–56 [New York: Plenum]).

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For species with skewed sex ratios but no homosexuality, see Welty, J. C., and L. Baptista (1988) The Life of Birds, 4th ed., p. 154 (New York: W. B. Saunders); Newton, I. (1986) The Sparrowhawk, pp. 37, 151 (Calton, England: T. and A. D. Poyser); Taborsky, B., and M. Taborsky (1991) “Social Organization of North Island Brown Kiwi: Long-Term Pairs and Three Types of Male Spacing Behavior,” Ethology 89:47-62. For verification of balanced sex ratios in populations exhibiting homosexuality, see Bonobo (Thompson-Handler et al. 1984:349); Bonnet Macaque (Simonds 1965); West Indian Manatee (Hartman 1979:139); Snow Goose (Quinn et al. 1989:184); California Gull (Conover et al. 1979); Pukeko (Craig 1980:594).

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For sex ratios of various Seals and Sea Lions, see Fay 1982:256 (Walrus); for lunulated and salvin’s antbirds, see Willis, E. O. (1968) “Studies of the Behavior of Lunulated and Salvin’s Antbirds,” Condor 70:128—48; for other antbird species with a “surplus” of unmated males but no homosexual pairs, see Willis, E. O. (1969) “On the Behavior of Five Species of Rhegmatorhina, Ant-Following Antbirds of the Amazon Basin,” Wilson Bulletin 81:363–95.

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