Blowhole Jobs

Again, via JMG, New York Times Weekend magazine is exploring homosexuality in the animal world. For instance, the instances of many female albatrosses pairing off together, and this gem:

"Male Amazon River dolphins have been known to penetrate each other in the blowhole."

I guess we now know why they named him "Flipper."

For years, according to the article, scientists ignored or explained away such behavior. For example:

"One primatologist speculated that the real reason two male orangutans were fellating each other was nutritional."

Mmmm....who knew Orangutan spunk could be good for you too? Suddenly the "nutritionist" position at the National Zoo seems more...interesting.

Here's the article. And the Joe My God summary from which I lifted these quotes.

Homosexuality in the Wild

In a Fox News (Fox News!) article about scientists finding rampant evidence of animals in the wild exhibiting homosexual behavior and advocating San Francisco values, many speculate why evolution would favor such practices.

One reason may be simply because it feels good:

Not every sexual act has a reproductive function," said Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University.

Clearly an activist scientist.

But she goes on:

"It could be a way that you strengthen bonds — that's one hypothesis," Mann told LiveScience. "Another is that it could be practice for heterosexual sex. Bottlenose dolphin calves mount each other a lot. That might benefit them later on."

Oh. So that's where the term "practicing homosexual" comes from.

But the one thing unique to humans with regards to homosexuality?

Homophobia.

Queer as Nature

And that's why birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let's do it, let's fall in love

Homosexuality is as natural as nature. That's the conclusion of Bruce Bagemihl's book, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.

Quote of note:

Bagemihl had scoured every scientific journal and paper he could lay his hands on for references to homosexuality in animals. Tucked away at the end of long and erudite texts, or consigned to footnotes and appendices, he found that homosexuality had been observed in no fewer than 1,500 species, and well documented in 500 of them. The earliest mention of animal homosexuality probably came 2,300 years ago when Aristotle described two female hyenas cavorting with each other.

The Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, has an exhibit devoted to this topic.

Just doin what come naturally...