"One fundamental premise in social debates has been that homosexuality is unnatural. This premise is wrong. Homosexuality is both common and highly essential in the lives of a number of species," explains Petter Boeckman, who is the academic advisor for the "Against Nature's Order?" exhibition at the Norwegian Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo. The Museum is hosting the first exhibition of its kind focusin on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.
The most well-known homosexual animal is the dwarf chimpanzee, or bonobo, one of humanity's closes relatives. The entire species is bisexual. Sex plays a major role in their day to day activities and assuages violent situations and helps solve conflicts. It's definitely a kiss and make up scenario across the board.
"Sex among dwarf chimpanzees is in fact the business of the whole family, and the cute little ones often lend a helping hand when they engage in oral sex with each other."
Lions are also homosexual. Male lions often band together with their brothers to lead the pride. To ensure loyalty, they strengthen the bonds by often having sex with each other.
Homosexuality is also quite common among dolphins and killer whales. The pairing of males and females is fleeting, while between males, a pair can stay together for years. Homosexual sex between different species is not unusual either. Meetings between different dolphin species can be quite violent, but the tension is often broken by a "sex orgy".
Among the apes it is the females that create the continuity within the group. The social network is maintained not only by sharing food and the child rearing, but also by having sex. Among many of the female apes the sex organs swell up. So they rub their abdomens against each other," explains Bøckman. Contrary to popular opinion, many animals have sex because they have the desire to, just as do humans.
Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 animal species.
"We're talking about everything from mammals to crabs and worms. The actual number is of course much higher. Among some animals homosexual behaviour is rare, some having sex with the same gender only a part of their life, while other animals, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, homosexuality is practiced throughout their lives."
Animals that live a completely homosexual life can also be found. This occurs especially among birds that will pair with one partner for life, which is the case with geese and ducks. Four to five percent of the couples are homosexual. Single females will lay eggs in a homosexual pair's nest. It has been observced that the homosexual couple are often better at raising the young than heterosexual couples.
When you see a colony of black-headed gulls, you can be sure that almost every tenth pair is lesbian. The females have no problems with being impregnated, although, according to Boeckman they cannot be defined as bisexual.
For some parts of the animal kingdom homosexuality really isn't an issue. Snails, for instance, are the animal kingdom's true bisexuals as they are hermaphroditic. You might almost say animals are karmasexual, their sexual behaviour is pre-determined in some way, and Boeckman would probably agree that they're happy with it too.
Source: Apollon University Magasin, University of Oslo
http://www.nhm.uio.no/againstnature/index.html
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