Queer Nature — The Everyday

Queer isn’t actually queer.

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it is also a very important month. In the UK February is celebrated as LGBT+ history month, marking the anniversary of the repealment of section 28 in Britain in 2003 (Waites, 2003). One of the main pushes I have seen this year is “It’s completely natural”, a sentiment I whole heartedly agree with. This got me thinking, how prevalent are non-CIS/Hetero behaviours in other parts of the natural world? Turns out the answer is VERY.

A quick google search brings up a plethora of examples of queer behaviours across nature. Ellerton (2011) discussed with Petter Boeckman, a prominent Zoologist from Oslo, about animal species practicing homosexuality. One thing that stood out is that homosexuality has been recorded in over 1500 species, and that they are yet to find a species that has sex which does not have homosexual individuals. Boeckman also lamented the lack of research and incorrect recording in existing research. For example, nine out of ten giraffe couplings occur between males, but in much of the research anal intercourse between males was recorded as “dominance behaviour” even when orgasm was reached.

Female bonobos are known to have female only sexual encounters every few hours, and is specifically seen during tense situations (Manson, 1997). These behaviours were first thought to be hormonally driven, but it was found that hormone level changes, such as those causes by ovulation and pregnancy, had no effect on the frequency of female-female sexual activity. Furthermore, mature and immature adults were equally as likely to engage in homosexual activity. These behaviours were not solely found in female bonobos either, male-male genital massage and “penis fencing” (Hohmann, 2015) it would seem that sex for pleasure is not only commonplace but so is non-heterosexual sex.

Across many dolphin species homosexual and polysexual activity is also observed (Acosta, 2015). Group sex between males including mouthing (oral sex), mounting and socio-sexual petting (masturbation), is not only ordinary, but was seen to have preferred association suggesting specific attraction. Moreover, heterosexual pairings are regularly short lived, whereas male-male pairings can last for years. Sexual activity is also seen between dolphin species, wherein group sex will be had to diffuse tense meetings.

It isn’t just sexual activity and attraction that can be described as LGBT+ in the wild. Many species across the animal kingdom are sex-changing. In Mollusca a system called sequential hermaphroditism exists (Kazancıoğlu and Alonzo, 2009). This system is usually in the form of Male to Female, and in the case of the slipper limpet, occurs when males come into contact with one another leading to one of these individuals becoming female over time in order to mate and sexually reproduce. Similar systems are found in clown fish (Casas et.al., 2016). Here groups will have a single female and a single dominant male who reproduce. If the female dies, the dominant male will transition into a female and one of the non-dominant males will transition into a dominant male.

I could go on forever, I didn’t even touch on insects or birds… but I’ll leave you with some homework. Look up Queer penguins, with lesbian and gay parents, kidnapping and gender neutral chicks, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

References

Acosta, N.B., 2015. Same-sex socio-sexual interactions among a group of captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) (Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern Mississippi).

Casas, L., Saborido-Rey, F., Ryu, T., Michell, C., Ravasi, T. and Irigoien, X., 2016. Sex change in clownfish: molecular insights from transcriptome analysis. Scientific reports, 6(1), pp.1-19.

Ellerton, P., 2011. 1,500 Animal Species Practice Homosexuality. Available: https://pactiss.org/2011/11/17/1500-animal-species-practice-homosexuality/. Last accessed 22/02/21.

Hohmann, G., 2015. Bonobos. The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, pp.1-5.

Kazancıoğlu, E. and Alonzo, S.H., 2009. Costs of changing sex do not explain why sequential hermaphroditism is rare. The American Naturalist, 173(3), pp.327-336.

Manson, J.H., Perry, S. and Parish, A.R., 1997. Nonconceptive sexual behavior in bonobos and capuchins. International Journal of Primatology, 18(5), pp.767-786.

Waites, M., 2003. Equality at last? Homosexuality, heterosexuality and the age of consent in the United Kingdom. Sociology, 37(4), pp.637-655.

Written by Libby Bowles

I’m a PhD Researcher at Prifysgol Aberystwyth, studying the perenniality syndrome in Grasses. I’m passionate about public engagement in science and the sharing of knowledge regarding the world we live in, especially the weird and wonderful.