Gay ape

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But in the debate over whether gay marriage, or any other non-reproductive sexual relationship, is "natural," no other animal holds more importance.

Homosexuality in bonobos is not cultural.

Being Gay Is Natural: Just Ask Bonobos (Op-Ed)

Brian Hare is an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, and Vanessa Woods is the author of "Bonobo Handshake"(Gotham, 20011).

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Perhaps there are social advantages such relationships confer on a group, or perhaps “gay genes” are selected for other reasons.

There may still be fertility advantages accruing to the other sex who inherit “male-loving” or “female-loving” gene variants, for example.

They were orphans of the bushmeat trade, and were born in the wild. The authors contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Lodja sees Mwanda and shrieks in excitement. Yet, barely anyone knows what a bonobo is. It is very widespread. These benefits are not necessarily the same in different mammal lineages, and may include others that have not yet been investigated.

This supports the hypothesis that homosexuality evolved to mitigate male–male aggression in mammals.

We conclude from this study that same-sex sexual behaviour in both males and females evolved as species shifted from solitary living to sociality. At Lola ya Bonobo, they were raised with other infants and human substitute mothers. The new study contradicts this.

Using a tree of relationships of mammals to each other – confirmed with DNA sequence comparisons – the patterns of same-sex sexual behaviour were mapped onto the relationships between species.

They share food. There were no adult bonobos to "teach" them sexual behavior.

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Sex for fun in bonobos, and many other animals, plays a social function.

The distribution of same-sex behaviour over all mammals didn’t fit the pattern we would expect if it were present in the common ancestor of all mammals, and was retained in some lineages but not others.

Read more: Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons

A better explanation for the evidence is that same-sex sexual behaviour was rare in mammalian ancestors overall, but evolved independently many times in many different families.

Without much foreplay, Lodja grinds her hips against Mwanda and their clitorises rub together with increasing speed and friction. An evolutionary view of 'gay genes'

Other hypotheses referenced in the new paper propose that same-sex behaviour has beneficial effects for human groups.

gay ape

It is more common, or more commonly acknowledged, in human societies in which it is not perceived of as an abnormal or aberrant behavior.

Occurrence in Other Animals: 

Homosexual behavior has been observed in mammalian and avian species and appears to be particularly common among marine mammals.

References

  1. Male homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y, Bogaert, Anthony F., Skorska Malvina N., Wang Chao, Gabrie José, MacNeil Adam J., Hoffarth Mark R., VanderLaan Doug P., Zucker Kenneth J., and Blanchard Ray , PNAS, 2017/12/11, (2017)

Since gay couples have fewer children, the high frequency of same-sex relationships in humans is puzzling from an evolutionary point of view.

It became more frequent in Old World monkeys (those found in Africa and Asia today) and increased again during the evolution of the great apes.

Same-sex sexual behaviour and social organisation

Next, the researchers examined the correlation of same-sex sexual behaviour to different measures of social organisation in different mammal species.

This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

Homosexual Behavior

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Human Uniqueness Compared to "Great Apes": 

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Behavior

Homosexual behavior has been reported in all of the Great Apes, for both males and females, adults and juveniles, in captivity and in the wild, although exclusive engagement in homosexual behavior may be unique to humans.

One idea is that same-sex relationships are important for forming and maintaining bonds and alliances within the group. It helps to establish and maintain social relationships and alliances, resolve conflicts and avoid aggression.

The high frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour in ape and monkey species suggests it was present in a social great ape ancestor, and maintained in present day social species, including humans.

Everybody might be right

Establishing that homosexuality confers selective advantages in social species such as humans and other great apes does not rule out other explanations.

But data gathered from the wild — and wild-born bonobos in captivity — over the past two decades has demonstrated that bonobo sexuality is just part of who they are.

The two bonobos Lodja and Mwanda were part of a study we conducted at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Congo.

Alternatively, same-sex behaviour may help to diminish conflict between members of the same sex, and contribute to establishing social hierarchies.

Like many bonobos at the sanctuary and in the wild, these individuals practiced g-g rubbing, where two female bonobos rub their clitorises together, penis fencing between males, and a myriad of other socio-sexual behavior.

But what set Mwanda and Lodja apart, as well as the other six bonobos in the study, was that they were infants, each younger than 4 years old.