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On the occasion of June, the month of LGBT+ Pride, a close-up on animal sexuality: homosexual or bisexual behavior has been observed in hundreds of species.
It was long a taboo subject for scientists, as it was in society. And yet: homosexuality is in nature. “ It’s the same as in humans “, underlines Fleur Daugey, journalist, ethologist (specialist in animal behavior), author of Gay Animals, a natural history of homosexuality. « In animals, there will be kisses, penetrations, in the vagina or in the anus, depending on the sex of the individuals. »
Homo or bisexual behaviors have been observed in 1,500 species, and 500 of them have been the subject of scientific studies, in birds, insects, mammals, reptiles or fish. So many cases that debunk a received idea: animal sexuality is only used for reproduction.
“Homosexuality is good”
In reality, in sex, there is first pleasure. ” If you’re a lion or an ant, you don’t tell yourself “I have to reproduce myself to leave descendants”, ironically Fleur Daugey. ” We will move towards sexual behavior because it makes us feel good, and incidentally we reproduce. It is therefore not surprising that there is homosexuality, since it feels good! »
Lions hug each other and lionesses too. Male bison have more homo than hetero relationships, with females only available once a year. Homosexuality, or bisexuality, also in dolphins or bonobos, those monkeys that look so much like us. Love is free in nature, and it is a free choice.
Animal same-sex parenting
Many homosexual relationships were first observed in animals in captivity: because they had no choice of sex for their partner, did we think? Not at all, as evidenced by experiments carried out on insects, beetles, from the 19th century. ” When researchers put males and females together, some males chose to have sex with other males when there were females available. “says Fleur Daugey.
But it’s not just sex in life. There is also love. The desire to start a family. In the Australian black swan, an example that Fleur Daugey often cites, ” it is the males who are sometimes homosexual, and who are frequently related. For example, they manage to mate with a female and hunt her once she has laid the eggs to take care of them themselves. » We even saw a couple of male penguins brooding on a pebble!
“What do animals think of surrogacy? »
We haven’t asked them for their opinion, and yet… What breeding hens, cows or female dogs do is surrogacy, for humans in this case, and their only profit ; the surrogate mother is never paid. But there are also carrier fathers in the animal world. In the seahorse, for example, the female lays eggs in the male’s ventral pouch, which fertilizes the eggs and carries them for 4 weeks. To allow the female to rest, to put the cover back as quickly as possible…