Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Perhaps the most convoluted—and humorous—mix-up of this sort involves a set of King Penguins that were studied at the Edinburgh Zoo from 1915 to 1930. The various permutations and shufflings of mistaken gender identities (on the part of human observers, not the birds) reached truly Shakespearean complexity. The sex of the penguins was initially determined on the basis of what was thought to be heterosexual behavior, and the birds were given (human) names accordingly. Following this, however, some “puzzling” observations of apparently homosexual activity were made. Subsequent re-pairings and breeding activity eventually revealed—more than seven years later!—that in fact the sex of all but one of the birds had been misidentified by the scientists. At this point a comprehensive “sex change” in the names of the birds was hastily instituted to reflect their true genders: “Andrew” was renamed Ann, “Bertha” turned into Bertrand, “Caroline” became Charles, and “Eric” metamorphosed into Erica (“Dora” had correctly been identified as a female). Ironically, although some previous “homosexual” interactions could be reclassified as heterosexual once the true sex of the birds was known, other less straightforward revisions were also required. Two penguins that had initially been seen engaging in “heterosexual” activity—“Eric” and Dora—later turned out to be same-sexed, while premature observations of lesbian mating between “Bertha” and “Caroline” were confirmed as homosexual—but actually involved the males Bertrand and Charles!³²

Sometimes the presumption of heterosexuality concerns not the sex of animals but the context in which courtship or pairing activity occurs. This can be characterized as a “heterocentric” view of animal behavior, i.e., one that tends to see all forms of social interaction as revolving around heterosexual activity (see chapter 5). For example, female homosexual pairs in a number of birds, such as Snow Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, Red-backed Shrikes, and Blue Tits, were initially thought to represent the female portion of heterosexual trios. The females were erroneously assumed to be bonded not to each other but to a third, male, bird (that had yet to be observed)—to the extent that several researchers felt compelled to provide explicit evidence and argumentation that no male was associated with such female pairs. Likewise, courtship and mounting activity between male Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock was categorized as a form of “disruption” of heterosexual courtships in one study, when in fact the majority of same-sex activity took place outside of heterosexual courtships when females weren’t even around. In a similar vein, same-sex behavior in Stumptail Macaques was classified as sexual in one study only if it occurred “during or immediately after or between heterosexual copulations.” In summarizing the pairing strategies adopted by widowed Jackdaws, one scientist enumerated only heterosexual mating patterns and failed to include the formation of female homosexual pairs, even though his own data showed that 10 percent of widowed females attracted new female mates. Likewise, one author’s discussion of homosexual activity in male Cheetahs focused on a single case where males mounted each other in apparent “frustration” during heterosexual courtship activities, when in fact the majority of same-sex interactions did not occur in this type of context. Finally, sexual activity and bonding between female Bonobos has traditionally been interpreted as a derivative extension of heterosexuality and subsumed under the general patterns of male-female relations. Recent work, however, shows that female bonding and homosexuality in this species are in fact autonomous from heterosexuality, not geared toward attracting opposite-sex partners, and actually much stronger and more primary than male-female bonding.³³