back to article Gay animals going at it like rabbits

Researchers have concluded that homosexual behaviour among animals is so impressively rife that it can "reshape their social dynamics and even change their DNA" - something which could have "evolutionary consequences" for species indulging in same-sex shenanigans. Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of the University of California …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. lansalot
    Happy

    so gay...

    So, confirmation of an animal/whoopsy kingdom then ? About time !

    Can we look forward to better-decorated birds-nests soon then, as the ones round my chimney are an eyesore ? I know peacocks put the effort into their appearance, but how about a badger with some EJ-style sunglasses ? Make the effort, badger-girl-friend ! (snap, snap)

    Or Gok Wan giving it "How to burrow good, naked" ?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Childish

    This was difficult research, there was no earlier research to base it on.

    They had to start from the bottom up.

  3. lansalot

    err

    "For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male"

    Costly ? If I were the mounted male in question, the cost would be the last thing I'd worry about...

  4. Richard IV
    Boffin

    ^Citation needed

    The infamous igNobel prize winning duck: http://www.nmr.nl/nmr/binary/retrieveFile?instanceid=16&itemid=2574

  5. The Dorset Rambler
    Stop

    Yeeeeeeeeukkkkk

    And again:

    Yeeeeeeeeukkkkk

  6. Tony Paulazzo
    Happy

    Finally...

    proof we're helping the evolutionary path of the human race.

    Reading the article did make me wonder if a human and dolphin have ever tried genitalia rubbing (intellectual curiosity only you understand) - I bet that sonar thing they do would feel weird...

  7. Dive Fox

    But...

    Bat bugs? If there's one thing I took away from Calvin and Hobbes, it's "Bats aren't bugs!"

  8. Martin Lyne
    Flame

    God clearly

    God clearly made all the gay animals as a temptation (you know, like evil), so we'd see it, try for ourselves and then be TARNISHED BY SIN.

    I knew a pair of lez spaniels once. Bless'em.

    It seemed good enough for the Ancient Greeks..

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Mac angle?

    Do they use Macs also?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    You and me baby..

    aint nothing but mamals, so lets' do it like that do on the disovery channel!

    Oh I can see the chat up lines in bars evolving now too!

    Paris, because she is animalistic in many ways...

  11. Aaron 3

    What needs justified?

    "The article at no point suggests that any form of animal behaviour can be judged by our standards, or that it in any way justifies similar actions in humans."

    I wasn't aware that 'similar actions in humans' required justification, actually.

    Though I do like the point about not judging by human standards; I mean, dolphins do it because they enjoy it, and because no dolphin in history has ever looked at another and said 'You faggot!' Now what makes humans so much less clever?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Desire? Pah!

    Gay people desire hot homo (sapiens) action on a regular basis because they are gay humans. I desire intercourse with sexy ladies on a regular basis because I am a heterosexual human. Desire has nothing to do with it as it is merely a consequence of who and what we are, just as our sexual orientation is a symptom of our particular nature as an individual. For instance, I bet bat bugs find puncturing your partner's dermis with your knob and then jacking off in their bloodstream pretty goddamned HOT. What difference does it make what sex they are? You still gotta poke 'em. In fact, the bat bug probably thinks we are a bit weird for having pre-existing holes for that purpose. I mean, why would you NOT want to puncture your partner's skin with your penis? Isn't that what LOVE IS? There's no magic here, people, no desire, just HOT ANIMAL LOVING. Hmm, this talk of bat bugs is making me pretty GODDAMNED HOT, myself.

    What was my point? I dunno, but I'm outta here. Got stuff to do... Great article, by the way.

  13. Nicholas Ettel
    Go

    Fantastic bootnotes

    If I had been drinking my coffee at the time of reading, disaster would have surely ensued. Purely fantastic - bravo, Lester.

  14. Inachu
    Thumb Down

    This is so wrong on many levels

    I would like to say this is so wrong on so many other levels other than moral.

    A. There are so many chemicals that we have unleashed into this world that now scientists are saying this is "evolving" instead FREAKS OF NATURE.

    We have pollutted the earth so bad with our factory industries and war machines.

    just think tha tthe agent orange and other chemicals really have not dissapated but just seeped into the water shed to be seeped into the ground and other natural ground wells.

    Plus also todays fertility drugs by humans and growth hormones and other drugs for the failing human condition end up in streams.

    The earth is one dirty cess pool and per this report proves things on planet earth will only get worse not better.

    If dirtying up the human gene pool is called evolving then lets get these nukes out and start shooting.

    Our future looks really sad.

  15. Dana W
    Stop

    @ Inachu

    So you are saying that Homosexuality in nature "and in humanity" is a product of industrial pollution, and that it would be better to start killing ourselves now, preferably in a nuclear fireball rather than to stop chasing down and disposing of the "Freaks of Nature" that is represented in your views by homosexuality?

    Is that your gist? If so, perhaps El Reg may not be the best place for you, You might do better to leave the serious talk to the grown ups and go over to stormfront.org. They alre always looking for "people" like you. They don't like gene pool dirtiers either, you will hit it off big with them.

    Nowhere does it say that homosexuality equals evolving, thats your fundamentalist roots showing. Just that it is part of most animal species. But to someone who thinks that homosexuals are so evil it would be ok to deep fry the planet rather than tolerate their actual existence and then claim "Its better that way" I have nothing more to say, as I doubt there are any words that can reach though hate that deaf and and closed off from simple human decency.

    "Never, in all my years, have I encountered such cruel and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the church?"

    *** The Bishop of Bath and Wells to Edmond Blackadder ***

  16. Ray0x6
    Heart

    @Inachu

    Totally correct, my man. The military industrial complex is definitely to blame for all these animals and people turning homo. But also, it seems to be the only way to get rid of 'em! I have to say, that last step of yours took application of some serious friggin logical genius. That turns me on and I am totally hot for you and bat bugs, right now. Smoochies?

  17. Wokstation

    It's hardly news...

    From National Geographic, in 2004:

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_gayanimal.html

    "Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.

    Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo have been inseparable for six years now. They display classic pair-bonding behavior—entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and the rest. They also have sex, while ignoring potential female mates. "

  18. Joe User

    Appropriately named

    In the case of boy-on-boy fruit flies, it's simply because the chaps "are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes", according to Bailey.

    They aren't called "fruit flies" for nothing....

  19. Andy Bright
    Thumb Up

    @Inachu

    Although you're talking complete bollocks, I applaud your attempt to engage the gay community in online handbags given you have no chance whatsoever of coming out on top. Their handbags are always going to be a lot cooler than yours and more likely to coordinate well with the rest of their ensemble.

    Speaking of which, has any evidence been unearthed that point to sharper looking albatross nests, snappy dressed penguins or an abundance of drapery in the homes of boy-on-boy fruit flies?

    Plus there is already ample evidence that our gay brethren have contributed positively to human evolutionary development, for which everyone here owes them an extraordinary debt of gratitude.. Soon all men will be able to make a decent cup of espresso*, with only Starbucks employees somehow immune to this massive step in our evolutionary cycle. Still survival of the fittest and all that, so I'm sure the side of humanity that normally applies for a job there will eventually disappear.

    *Not to mention the cost of the damn machines has fallen to reasonable levels given the mass production required to sustain the gay community.

  20. Inachu
    Alert

    There are differences

    There are differences between being gay and being made gay by industrial poluttion.

    You can guage this by the same way people with cancer who put red dots for everyone who has cancer they have found that high density populations are the cause and for also living near companies that pollute the air and dump their waste.

    Just think you or your lil johhny or sally could be straight if you lived in the mountain in Denver Colorado or some Highland place where the streams are clean.

    There already is documented proof that chemicals make people and frogs give birth to ambigous sexual animal and humans. All this research and you think it belongs to stormfront or the KKK? Ok then go down and drink all the chemical laced products along with your lover and when you have a baby lets see how messed up genetically the baby will be.....

    Pretty sad when you think that nobody has ever created the GAY bomb when the research on a GAY BOMB has already been done and tested out in the wild! They just bring the field results back to the military complex and make it more potent.

    You silly uneducated fruits!

  21. anarchic-teapot

    A very partisan study I'd say

    I mean, it totally leaves out transgender fish for example (clownfish, wrasses...) And isn't there a transvestite lizard species with males who dress female, the better to hoodwink the big, butch males and get closer to their harems?

  22. Charles Manning

    Albatross

    The co-nesting female albatrosses are not being gay. They're just co-habiting to share childcare duties like two single mums might.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Wrong Day

    I'm new here, isn't Friday sex day? I'm so confused...

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Inachu

    >Highland place where the streams are clean.

    Not a good example, don't you know most Scotsmen wear skirts, the ones that don't are in parliament and don't give a damn as to who they fuck.

  25. Dana W
    Jobs Halo

    @ Inachu

    So now you claim gay people only come from industrial areas, and don't exist in small un-industrial towns? That is going to be a big shock to the people in Provincetown. I''ve met too many gay people escaping these mythical rural "clean zones" ,usually fleeing religious nuts. So, did they catch their gay off bus station toilet seats?

    And of course all the homosexuals in 10,000 years of human history, most of which is quite pre-industrial all got their industrial poisons how? Via time machine perhaps?

    Lastly the "gay bomb" idea was the product of silly super right wing US politicos who thought that soldiers could not fight properly if they were looking at their squadmates butt. "Apparently they had never heard of Sparta" It got its budget axed before it even got off the ground, even most of the Bush Republicans thought it was a stupid idea.

  26. BioTube
    Boffin

    EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!

    First, let's admit that our chemical dumps have probably had SOME effect on animal populations. Second, let's remember that part of being human is resisting biological impulses. Third, wasn't the gay bomb designed to start an impromptu orgy?

  27. Trix 1
    Black Helicopters

    @Inachu - ROFLMAO

    Gosh, the ancient Spartans must have had a terrible time with industrial wastes and GAY BOMBS being let off amongst them.

    Also, I'm not a "fruit", I'm a DYKE. You'd think the gay bombs (I don't think they had many of those in Kiwiland, but maybe it's a secret testing ground - I mean, we've all heard of lesbian sheep) would have turned me straight, if these BOMBS were supposed to make us all lust unnaturally for men. Sorry, no.

  28. DZ-Jay

    So, it's unnatural?

    I'm not sure I get what their conclusion is. According to the following statement, among others:

    >> "For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male, and this cost may increase selection pressure for males’ tendency to release a chemical which dissuades other males from mounting them"

    it seems to be that homosexual behaviour in animals is an aberration that affects their survival, which excerts pressure to evolve mechanisms to avoid it.

    Is that their point?

    -dZ.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong word

    "Other species indulging in unnatural** sexual liaisons"

    If it occurs in nature/Nature then, by definition, it is natural/Natural.

  30. frank ly
    Stop

    @Trix 1 re. @Inachu -ROFLMAO

    Hasn't the uncontrolled creation of dykes resulted in disruption to local water table structure with consequences for soil salination, eco-system unbalance and suchlike?

    I'm making lots of comments today, am I in the right place?

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like