Natural Homosexual Behavior in Animals
- theprisminitiative
- Jul 19, 2021
- 6 min read
Many members of the LGBTQ+ have been told that being gay is “unnatural” or “unusual.” Although homosexual behaviors aren’t as common as heterosexual behaviors, homosexual behaviors and relationships have been observed in over 450 different animal species. From mammals to insects and birds, nature has shown that its creatures sometimes engage in these behaviors thought to be “unnatural.”
Examining homosexual behavior in birds can be fairly difficult since the sex of the birds isn’t always easily distinguishable by appearance. Scientists such as Lindsay Young, who studied the behavior of Laysan Albatross for over a decade, have kept track of various species of birds and seen examples of homosexual behavior. These romantic behaviors usually include performing mating rituals, sleeping in the same nest, and raising young together. Some common examples of birds that form homosexual bonds include the Laysan Albatross, penguins, and swans.

Laysan Albatross
The Laysan Albatross, residing in the Northwest islands of Hawai’i, have a wingspan of almost seven feet. One key trait of these birds is that they usually mate for life. Every year, these birds return to their breeding grounds to find a mate if it's their first breeding season or returns with their old mate. After the couple is reunited, they usually perform mating rituals and begin rearing a chick. Each couple can only raise one chick each breeding season. The couple usually rotates responsibilities every three weeks. One bird will sit on the egg for those three weeks while the other goes out to sea to find food for itself. The bird that goes for food sometimes travels hundreds of miles to feed itself before returning to the nest. The roles switch until the chick dies or leaves the nest.
Homosexual albatross couples usually perform the same courtship and mating rituals as heterosexual couples. Additionally, both couples aim to raise a chick and care for their significant other. These relationships last for years, if not decades. Laysan Albatross have a lifespan of about 60 years and homosexual couples have been seen coming back to the nesting grounds to reunite with each other for 4, 8, and 19 years. Albatross intentionally engage in homosexual behavior since they’ve maintained long relationships, spanning as far back as the researcher’s data goes. Additionally, approximately 31% of Oahu’s Laysan Albatross are in a homosexual relationship.

In order to rear their own chick, one or more of the females will mate with a male who’s in another committed pair and then return to their partner to raise a single chick from the fertilized egg. Female albatross are capable of laying one egg each breeding season, which baffled scientists when they would find two eggs in a single nest. This would happen when both females mated with a male albatross and both laid their eggs in the same nest. However, albatross have the resources to only raise one chick each breeding season similar to their heterosexual counterparts.
These homosexual pairings have a few advantages. Homosexual couples may mate with a male that has desirable characteristics which will get passed onto their offspring. Additionally, having same-sex couples reduces the competition since there are more possible pairings and less competition for the opposite sex. One final advantage is that a female albatross would be unable to raise a chick on her own. By being in a couple with another female, the birds are able to work together to raise their young and have a higher success rate than females who try to raise their chick on their own. After the breeding season is over, both homosexual and heterosexual couples part ways with their partner and return to one another the following year.

Penguins
Over the past few years, there have been a few famous penguin homosexual couples. One of these was Ronnie and Reggie who have been together since 2014 at the ZSL Zoo in London. Ronnie and Reggie are both male penguins who live in the same enclosure. They engage in behaviors that other heterosexual penguin couples do such as snuggling together in their nest, dancing, and play with one another. Other homosexual behaviors include the penguins interlocking their necks or “singing” (vocalizing) to each other.
In 2015, the couple adopted an egg that was abandoned by a different penguin pairing. They were seen splitting the jobs of raising the chick, Kyton, between the two of them. After Kyton was successfully raised, he left the nest and began his own life. Even after the couple was done parenting, they still love each other and are still together to this day.

At the ZSL Zoo, Ronnie and Reggie aren’t the only homosexual penguin couple. Alongside them are Nadja and Zimmer as well as Dev and Martin. Additionally, at the Berlin Zoo, a male homosexual couple named Skipper and Ping adopted an abandoned egg. Similar to Ronnie and Reggie, the couple takes turns keeping the egg warm. The penguins have even been protecting the egg from any threats it may face. Skipper and Ping have been together for a little over 10 years.

Swans
Swans are another example of birds that exhibit homosexual behavior. Similar to the Laysan Albatross, swans tend to mate for life and return to the same nesting spot each year. At Abbotsbury Swannery, a male homosexual swan couple happily lives there and performs the same mating behaviors that heterosexual swan couples do. These mating behaviors are usually what swans do when they’re preparing to have a chick of their own. Not only does this couple show the same behavior as heterosexual swans but they also return to the same nesting site year after year.

Male-male couples will often steal the eggs of a female swan or take care of eggs that have been abandoned. When the swans have no eggs to take care of during that breeding season, they will often lay upon their nest and act as if they have eggs or are expecting to lay eggs.
Homosexual male couples also tend to have higher rates of success when it comes to rearing chicks. Approximately 80% of homosexual couples successfully raise their chicks while heterosexual couples’ success rate is at about 30%. Scientists have attributed this to the fact that male couples are able to fight for the best nesting spot and are better suited to protecting their young than heterosexual couples.

Other Examples of Homosexual Animals
In addition to birds, many mammals engage in homosexual behavior. Commonly, male giraffes have been engaged in sexual behavior with other male giraffes. Walruses often display both homosexual and heterosexual behavior, mating with females during breeding season and males in the off-season. In female macaques, the long-term homosexual couples are very common and male macaques often have short-term homosexual relations. Female macaques usually have relationships with one other female macaque and will occasionally have sex with males to produce offspring. These female couples often accompany one another, protect each other, and do everyday activities-such as grooming one another-which strengthens the bond between them.

In our expansive oceans, dolphins, usually credited as some of the smartest animals on our planet, have sex with dolphins of the same sex. In bottlenose dolphins, homosexual behavior is about as common as heterosexual behavior. Male bottlenose dolphins often switch between partners but some have been seen showing only homosexual activity.
Homosexual behaviors are more common than most people believe and if it exists in nature, then by definition it's a natural behavior. Primates that share a similar genetic makeup engage in homosexual acts, showing that it should come as no surprise that humans, with our very diverse population, also have members that engage in homosexual behavior and relationships. In some cases, homosexual couples fill in a hole that the heterosexual couples have, such as taking care of abandoned eggs or reducing competition.

Since homosexuality is often seen as a taboo subject, research is still being done to figure out why animals sometimes have same-sex relationships. Although some scientists have tried to deny it, homosexual animals do exist and it's a natural process, not an anomaly or mistake of nature. The next time someone tries to say that homosexuality is unnatural, bring up the Laysan Albatross who soar over the beautiful beaches of Hawai’i, the dolphins playing in the ocean, or the penguin couples who have successfully brought chicks into the world.

Sources:
Do Animals Exhibit Homosexuality? – Yale Scientific Magazine
Some penguins are gay. Get over it. | Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
London Zoo Celebrates Pride Month With A Gay Penguin Couple (storypick.com)
Gay swans are deeply in love as they make a nest and even have lovers' quarrels | Daily Mail Online
Same-Sex Mothers: Letting Albatrosses Be Albatrosses (nationalgeographic.com)
Research/Writing/Script - Brianna Newton
Editing - Claire Nguyen
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