Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Similarly, the parenting abilities of female pairs in many Gull species are often implied to be substandard because such couples usually hatch fewer chicks than heterosexual pairs. However, calculations of the hatching success of homosexual pairs typically include infertile eggs in the overall count; since many females in same-sex pairs do not mate with males, large numbers of their eggs are infertile and so of course a larger proportion of their clutches do not hatch. In addition, all of the traits taken to indicate poor quality of parenting in some female pairs—e.g., smaller eggs, slower embryonic development, lower hatching rate of fertile eggs, reduced weight and greater mortality of chicks, higher rates of loss or abandonment—are also characteristic of supernormal clutches attended by heterosexual parents (usually polygamous trios). In other words, they are related to the larger-than-average clutch size rather than the sex of the parents per se. In fact, most studies of Gulls have shown that the parenting abilities of homosexual pairs are at least as good as those of heterosexual pairs. Moreover, heterosexual parents in many Gull species can be severely neglectful or overtly violent toward their chicks, causing youngsters to “run away” from their own families and be adopted by others (or even perish). Needless to say, this behavior is never interpreted as being representative of all heterosexual pairs or as impugning heterosexuality in general (even though it is usually far more widespread than homosexual inadequacies).²⁵ Thus, many zoological studies evidence the same inconsistency often found in discussions of human homosexuality: any difficulties or irregularities in same-sex relations are generalized to all homosexual interactions (or else focused on to the exclusion of other examples), whereas comparable problems in opposite-sex relations are seen in the proper perspective, simply for what they are—individual (or idiosyncratic) occurrences that, while noteworthy, do not reflect the entirety of heterosexuality nor warrant disproportionate attention.

Homophobia in the field of zoology is not always this overt or virulent; nevertheless, ignorance or negative attitudes that are not directly expressed usually have identifiable consequences and important ramifications for the way the subject is handled. Discussion of animal homosexuality has in fact been compromised and stifled in the scientific discourse in four principal ways: presumption of heterosexuality, terminological denials of homosexual activity, inadequate or inconsistent coverage, and omission or suppression of information.

Heterosexual Until Proven Guilty

… after about twenty minutes I realized that what I was watching was three whales involved in most erotic activities! … Then one, two, and eventually three penes appeared as the three whales rolled at the same time. Obviously, all three were males! It was almost two hours after the first sighting … and up to that point I was convinced I was watching mating behavior. A discovery—and a stern reminder that first impressions are deceiving.

—JAMES DARLING, “The Vancouver Island Gray Whales”²⁶

Many behavioral studies of animals operate under a presumption of heterosexuality: a widespread—if not universal—assumption among field biologists is that all courtship and mating activity is heterosexual unless proven otherwise. This is particularly prevalent in studies of animals in which males and females are not visually distinguishable at a distance. The scientific literature is filled with examples of biologists who were convinced that the sexual, courtship, or pair-bonding activity they had been observing was between a male and female—until confronted with clear evidence of homosexuality, such as a glimpse of two sets of male genitalia, or a nest containing more eggs than just one female could have laid.²⁷