No sex please, we’re Proboscis Monkeys

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. The Proboscis Monkey and its extraordinary nose lives in Borneo. The species is regarded as vulnerable, one stage away from being endangered.

Proboscis groups are centred around a polygamous male with several adult female mates, although males have little say in the group’s social life or decision making. Female relationships hold the group together and most friendly or aggressive interactions take place between females. You could possibly conceptualise it from a less patriarchal and heteronormative viewpoint as a group of females who maintain a single male partner that they agree to share. Sometimes the “excess” males band together in all-male troops.

Both males and females take part in homosexual activity, although neither heterosexual and homosexual advances are always welcomed and the aggressor will try to force them. But sexual activity of any orientation is fairly rare. In one study, there were only 12 mountings in a whole year, two of which (17%) were same-sex. 28% of all adult males never have heterosexual relations because they live in all-male groups. Proboscis Monkeys will even try to stop others having sex. Attempted heterosexual copulations gather audiences who try to disrupt the mating pair by climbing on them, pulling the male’s nose, making noises, or making distracting movements. It’s like a mashup of monkey porn and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: Incidental Observed: Wild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… Boy Flycatchers who like Boy Flycatchers who act like Girl Flycatchers.

Original Proboscis Monkey image from Wikipedia Commons.

The gay marriages of Swans

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Mute (European and temperate Asian) Swans are already quite well known for forming same sex partnerships, if only because newspapers and local news TV stations never seem to tire of reporting them as “amusing” filler items, as if there was something inherently absurd or comedic about them. By now you should be getting the idea that there’s nothing aberrant about it. Pairs of males, pairs of females, pairs who mate heterosexually only so one of them can get an egg of their own (i.e. what would be called among humans surrogate parenthood), and parents fostering cygnets to whom they have no biological connection: all of these are relatively common, naturally occurring and well-documented family arrangements for Swans. About 20-25% of successful (meaning in this case raising one or more cygnets to adulthood) Swan families have homosexual parents.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Courtship, Sexual, Pair-bonding, Parenting Ranking: Primary Observed: Wild, Semiwild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

In addition to same-sex parenthood, some Swans appear to be “exclusively” homosexual. Female pairs may sit on unfertilised eggs because they’ve never mated with a male, and male pairs sometimes build nests together but never show any interest in acquiring eggs or cygnets. Moreover, up to 89% of individuals (and rarely less than 50%) in any given Swan population are barely reproductive, or they’re asexual and never attempt to breed at all. Many birds may only nest once or twice in a lifetime of 15-20 years. Male swans sometimes shack up with homosexual birds of other species, including other types of swans, or geese.

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… big nose means big everything? Or you’re a Proboscis Monkey.

Original Swan image from Wikipedia Commons.

Planet of the Lesbian Macaques

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. Unfortunately the appealing and somewhat internet famous Japanese Macaques are an endangered species. In the wild they live in forests and on mountainsides. I met a load of these Macaques who live at Arashiyama near Kyoto. They’re about a meter (3 feet) long. Their groups are between 20-100 strong. In large numbers they were more terrifying than adorable. I particularly remember a viewing area where it was safer and more practical to cage the humans and let the monkeys grip the mesh to look in.

Female Macaques form “consortships”, temporary but exclusive pair bonds based on mutual sexual attraction. The two females spend every possible moment together once they’ve bonded. There are seven different sexual positions in homosexual copulation, and they most definitely use them all. Females will actively compete and fight with Macaques of both sexes for access to their chosen female partners. Heterosexual partnerships rarely last beyond the mating season, and the homosexual consortships don’t last more than a few weeks either although unlike the heterosexual partners the female couple will remain friends. In effect female Macaques are serially monogamous. Incest is taboo, but consortships may otherwise be between females of any age.

Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Homosexuality: Female & Male Behaviours: Courtship, Affectionate, Sexual, Pair-bonding Ranking: primary Observed: Wild, Semiwild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Exterior decorators

More from Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity by Bruce Bagemihl. The Regent Bowerbird is about 12 inches long, with velvety black plumage and brilliant golden yellow highlights. It lives in the forests of Queensland, Australia.

They’re polygamous and promiscuous in their mating. Males court and mate with multiple partners in the display territories for which the bird is famous: the “bower” is an elaborate structure with two parallel walls made of twigs and a display area for ornaments the bird has collected.

The male’s courting display involves him dancing around and ritually presenting these precious possessions by holding each of them in his beak, one after the other. The objects may include snail shells, coloured insect carapaces, berries, seeds, flowers, or bits of human detritus such as blue plastic bags, broken glass, foil, twine, and bottle caps. Sometimes the males paint the bowers a yellowish-green colour by using a mixture of mashed-up, brightly coloured leaves and their saliva.

You may already have guessed that male Bowerbirds don’t see why all this effort should just be for the ladies to appreciate… or not appreciate in many cases, since females frequently get bored and move on before a male’s show is finished. How rude. The other boys, however, appreciate how much effort has gone into all his foraging and decoration. Sometimes they appreciate it so much that they want to mate with the bower’s owner. What you may not be expecting is that some male Bowerbirds are also transvestites…

Regent Bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus)

Homosexuality: Male Transgender: Transvestism Behaviours: Courtship Ranking: Moderate Observed: Wild, Captivity

(See It’s Gay Animal Fortnight for an explanation of this box.)

Many younger males have plumage that resembles that of a female bird instead of a male. For up to seven years they may entirely resemble females or look like a mixture of male and female. These transvestites have special ways of building their bower and displaying their objects when they’re attempting to court somebody of their own gender. Bowerbirds with typical male plumage spend about 15% of their time trying to seduce other males. 28% of the juvenile transvestites’ display time is spent re-enacting the twist from The Crying Game with other males. Furthermore, two thirds of adult males seem to have no interest in courting anybody of either gender. Only a third of males build bowers at all, and only a fraction of visits by other Bowerbirds to a courting bird’s bower lead to mating.

Quite reminiscent of going back to somebody’s place, then they insist on showing you all their records or all their action figures or how many shoes and teddy bears they’ve got or something and you just think, OK… heading home now.

Next time on Gay Animal Fortnight… the gayest hoofed animal is not the Unicorn. It’s the Giraffe.

Original Regent Bowerbird image from Wikipedia Commons.