Same-Sex Behavior in the Animal Kingdom

tjwriter · Jun 16, 2009

Found these couple of articles interesting:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15750604/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Examples of same-sex behavior can be found in almost all species in the animal kingdom — from worms to frogs to birds — making the practice nearly universal among animals, according to a new review of research on the topic.
"It's clear that same-sex sexual behavior extends far beyond the well-known examples that dominate both the scientific and popular literature: for example, bonobos, dolphins, penguins and fruit flies," said Nathan Bailey, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside.

and

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31390058/ns/technology_and_science-science/

A first-ever museum display, "Against Nature?," which opened last month at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum in Norway, presents 51 species of animals exhibiting homosexuality.

Almost a quarter of black swan families are parented by homosexual couples. Male couples sometimes mate with a female just to have a baby. Once she lays the egg, they chase her away, hatch the egg, and raise a family on their own.

Animals have less of a problem with it than people do given our current kurfluffle with gay marriage.

*Walks off humming Bloodhound Gang*
"You and me baby, ain't nothing but mammals..."

SharkGelli · Jun 16, 2009

Meh. I hate this argument. The whole "nature" perspective is just one giant tangent. Some animals eat their young, so isn't that "natural"? Animals don't use currency as a way to facilitate exchange, so isn't that "unnatural"?

Whether or not animals do certain things shouldn't be the basis of whether or not the act is moral. IMO. : /

Fokker Aeroplanbau · Jun 16, 2009

So Darwin is right, until you start talking about homosexuality? Okay tj, whatever you say but I have my reservations.

AMCrenshaw · Jun 16, 2009

This isn't about morality. Neither is natural or unnatural good or evil.

Darwin could be right about this too: Let's say there is pleasure or companionship involved. Does this increase survivability?

AMC

Celia Cyanide · Jun 16, 2009

SharkGelli said:
Meh. I hate this argument. The whole "nature" perspective is just one giant tangent. Some animals eat their young, so isn't that "natural"? Animals don't use currency as a way to facilitate exchange, so isn't that "unnatural"?

Whether or not animals do certain things shouldn't be the basis of whether or not the act is moral. IMO. : /

Well, if there weren't people trying to argue that homosexuality is "unnatural," I don't think anyone would be arguing that it occurs in nature.

Lhun · Jun 16, 2009

AMCrenshaw said:
This isn't about morality. Neither is natural or unnatural good or evil.

Darwin could be right about this too: Let's say there is pleasure or companionship involved. Does this increase survivability?

The mechanism is most likely kin selection which can get pretty complicated to figure out. The short rundown: since genes are shared wit high (50/50) percentage among siblings, genes that increase the reproductive fitness of a few at the cost of others can be beneficial in a long run. If for example one of four siblings doesn't have offspring, but helps the other three in a way that (numerically) makes up for not having his own, you'll get a set of genes that propagate by kin selection. Since families with helpful non-reproducers outperform families without them, the genes propagate, even though the individual helpful non-reproducers don't. Obviously, this is a trait that can't ever become dominant in a majority of individuals. Unless they're insects, works fine for them.

dclary · Jun 16, 2009

You and me Johnny ain't nothing but mammals, so gimme a reach-around like they do on the discovery channel!

tjwriter · Jun 17, 2009

Celia Cyanide said:
Well, if there weren't people trying to argue that homosexuality is "unnatural," I don't think anyone would be arguing that it occurs in nature.

This is more or less what I what I was thinking, but I just thought it was interesting to read the two articles.

At the basest level, humans are just mammals.

Same-Sex Behavior in the Animal Kingdom

tjwriter

Emerging Anew

SharkGelli

New kid, don't punch hard!

Fokker Aeroplanbau

AMCrenshaw

...

Celia Cyanide

Joker Groupie

Lhun

New kid, be gentle!

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

tjwriter

Emerging Anew