Exclusively homosexual animals?

submitted by RedditHatesLesbians from self.Lesbians

I know that many animals engage in homosexual behaviour, but are there any examples of animals that are exclusively homosexual apart from humans?

From what I've seen the only example is domesticated male sheep, but I'm curious if anyone knows of a female equivalent or any wild animal like this.

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[–]Gearbeta 21 insightful - 3 fun21 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

There's a book from 2000 called Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity that has data on this very subject. And yeah, many animals are functionally bisexual or homosexual for part of their lives and then mate with the opposite sex, then go back to being homosexual, there are recorded instances of individuals of a species refusing to have sex with a member of the opposite sex, choosing only to mate with the same sex. So they're gay. Some excerpts from the book:

Bonobos: "In addition, females have sometimes been observed consistently ignoring males soliciting them for sex, preferring instead to GG-rub with each other."

Chimpanzees: "However, a few individuals appear to be more exclusively homosexual: one female, for example, refused to mate with males and was only involved with other females for many years" (This one did eventually mate with males but still there were some like this that never did)

Macaques: "In other troops, though, some females are exclusively lesbian, engaging in sexual interactions only with females: in these cases, an average of 9 percent of females are homosexual, 56 percent bisexual, and 35 percent exclusively heterosexual."

Red Fox: "Many female Red Foxes that mount other females may be exclusively same-sex oriented, since such younger or lower-ranking individuals usually do not mate with males. For some females, this homosexual orientation may be longlasting—perhaps even continuing for a female’s entire life—since as many as 50–70 percent of vixens never leave their home groups to begin breeding on their own."

[–]yousaythosethings 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Those vixens!

[–]Coffeebreath 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is fascinating, especially the foxes. I've heard of apes exhibiting homosexual behavior but never canines.

[–][deleted] 11 insightful - 17 fun11 insightful - 16 fun12 insightful - 17 fun -  (2 children)

I had two female ducks that always paired up for seasonal monogamy. The drake decided I should be his partner since the two girls didn’t want to mate with him.

[–]VioletRemi 5 insightful - 9 fun5 insightful - 8 fun6 insightful - 9 fun -  (1 child)

And you dissapointed the drake by being into women too? :D

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 6 fun3 insightful - 5 fun4 insightful - 6 fun -  (0 children)

He was the closest thing I’ll ever have to a boyfriend lol

[–]VioletRemi 16 insightful - 6 fun16 insightful - 5 fun17 insightful - 6 fun -  (1 child)

There are lesbian lizards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_whiptail

Some birds and monkeys can form exclusive homosexual relationships, especially among swans that can happen often. I know there gay male penguins too.

[–]VioletRemi 10 insightful - 4 fun10 insightful - 3 fun11 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Actually got reminded about those: http://archive.is/ibSbq

People called them "Romeo" and "Juliet", as they were very loving and very long together. And only years after they found that they are both female!

Seems mammals and birds are most often homosexual, as they even have their own page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_displaying_homosexual_behavior and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_displaying_homosexual_behavior

[–]plotbunny 10 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Ooh I can sort of answer this!

So first up: homosexual behaviour is the only thing that can technically be measured, since asking animals about their sexual attraction doesn't usually work very well.

It gets harder when species are more similar between the sexes and less obviously dimorphic (eg roosters vs chickens, etc) because then seeing if a mate is male or female is less obvious, and nobody really wants to supervise that closely.

Also in lab conditions behaviours can change vs wild conditions and may not be considered 'normal'.

It's also usually explained as confusion on the animal's part, or a lack of choice if sex ratios are skewed, or as a non-sexual behaviour altogether (some males use it as a dominance thing). Also, science seems to not like the idea very much (but that's just my interpretation).

All that to say that I don't personally know of any exclusively homosexual animals and it would also be hard for a species to survive if they truly were exclusively homosexual (unless only some individuals of that species were, like humans- but again, hard to measure).

This was super long, apologies for that. Check out Laysan albatrosses, they're pretty cool (or just google lesbian albatrosses, same result).

[–]RedditHatesLesbians[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This was very interesting, thanks for such an in depth answer!

[–][deleted] 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

As with the other comments, many animals can exhibit homosexual tendencies, the greatest example being New Mexican whiptail lizards, who are all born female and mate with each other via an asexual reproduction process known as parthenogenesis. Other reptiles in the monitor family can also exhibit this behavior under extreme conditions. Komodo dragons have been known to sometimes reproduce via parthenogenesis when males are not present. Most primates like those listed below exhibit it, but other species not mentioned are: deer of all kinds, dolphins, lions, and various waterfowl.

[–]piylot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Another good question, to piggy-back on this- are there animals who have a "type"? Animals only into tall animals? or only into animals who are kind of shy and nervous but in a cute way? Only into animals who exhibit a certain skill?

[–]VioletRemi 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Some animals have those dating rituals or special looks, like peafowl have. And for some reason different male peafowl are interesting to different female peafowl, it is not like every girl there choses one same male. So there some preferences they may have!

[–]al-Amira 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well, there's "mate choice" one of the driving factors for sexual selection (according to some). Mate choice is essentially one of the individuals (more oftan than not females) determining whom to have offspring with based on their partner's qualities, resources and phenotypes. However, when I'm not sure I would entirely equate it to what humans tend to view as preferences - but mate selection also happens in humans (probably just not as functional in modern society though), just not in the sense of dating ads that says "no one under 1.80m". There's a good book on mate choice, called... "Mate choice" by Patrick Bateson. On the other hand, there are those who argue that mate choice is just simply natural selection and that ascribing the ability to judge standards of beauty to animals is just too much, and there are studies amongst peafowl that both show and don't show that peahens choose their mating partner based on the peacock's train.

I doubt you'll find any animal being into shy animals though, it doesn't seem like a particularly good trait to have in a courting ritual.