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Two male African elephants exhibit same-sex sexual behavior in Tsavo, Kenya.
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Same-sex sexual behavior has been observed in more than 1,500 species, but a new study has found it is vastly underreported by researchers.
Observations of these same-sex behaviors in animals, such as sexual mounting and genital touching, date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. But research on this topic only made progress in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In a study published Thursday in the journal PLOSOne, a team of researchers from the University of Toronto, Northwestern University and the University of Warsaw found that experts who study animal behavior overstate their observations of sexual behavior between people of the same sex. reporting little and publishing rarely.
The study surveyed 65 experts and found that 77% of them observed same-sex sexual behavior in the species they studied. But only 48% collected data on these behaviors and even fewer – just 18% – had published articles on these findings.
“Many respondents reported their lack of data capture or publishing on SSSB [same-sex sexual behavior] was due to the perception that it was very rare,” Karyn Anderson, a doctoral candidate in evolutionary anthropology at the University of Toronto who led the study, told CNN. “When we looked at it on a broader scale, we found that it was observed very often by our study participants.”
The idea that this sexual behavior is rare in the animal kingdom has been and continues to be used in debates over the ethics of human homosexuality, the study said.
Anderson says their research, like others on same-sex sexual behavior in animals, has found that this behavior is in fact “widespread and natural across the animal kingdom.”
David Hecker/DDP/AFP/Getty Images
Two female penguins stand in front of a hollow where two male penguin pairs “Sechs Punkt” (Six Point) and “Schraegstrich” (Slash) are cuddling at the Bremerhaven Zoo, where three male homosexual penguin pairs live, February 2005. Although the zoo imported Four female penguins from a Swedish zoo last January, the males still show no interest in them.
Yet homosexual behavior continues to be newly discovered among different species. In 2018, the first report of sex between male spider monkeys was recorded. That same year, two male Gentoo penguins made headlines for “adopting” an egg left behind by a male-female penguin pair.
The field appears ripe for future research — of the species found in the study to engage in same-sex behavior, almost 39% had no previous reports of this behavior, the authors said.
Josh Davis, science writer for the Natural History Museum in London and author of the book ‘A Little Gay Natural History’ was not surprised by the study’s findings, but says he found it ‘quite exciting’ to have the data to prove these figures. .
“Homosexual behavior has been officially recorded in about 1,500 species, but I think most people have suspected for a long time that this is most likely a huge underestimate,” he told CNN. “Because it’s found in almost every branch of the evolutionary tree… from beetles and butterflies to lizards and squirrels.”
By identifying this gap in research, Anderson hopes that other mammalogists will be encouraged to publish their research on same-sex sexual behavior.
FLPA/Shutterstock
Two adult male edible frogs (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) in mating experiment on water lily leaves in water in Luisenpark, Germany.
Although the authors hypothesized that discomfort or sociopolitical reasons may contribute to the underreporting of same-sex sexual behavior, they did not find this to be the case among the researchers they surveyed.
Instead, respondents told them it could be because this sexual behavior was rare or not a research priority for their lab. Most of their observations would be considered ‘anecdotal’ rather than the result of systematic research, which might make scientific journals less likely to publish their findings.
Davis added that there have been other obstacles to documenting same-sex behavior in animals.
“Historically, there has certainly been a fear among researchers that if they published about this behavior, they might be associated with that behavior,” he said, although it “has gotten better over time.”
Another challenge for researchers is that when they observe sexual activity in species, the sex of the animal is not always clear. “There’s an underlying assumption that when they see it, they’re looking at a man and a woman,” Davis says.
“The biggest takeaway from this study is that same-sex sexual behavior is commonly observed in mammals, but not widely reported,” Anderson explains. more common when we look at it on a broader scale.”