Chimpanzee gay

These animals have been observed practicing homosexual courtship, sexual behavior, affection, pair bonding, or parenting.

why are penguins gay

Chimpanzees, humans' more violent cousins, do not seem to use sex in this way. They occasionally torture each other, kill strangers and demonstrate other echoes of humanity's dark side. Researchers from Durham University have observed that chimpanzee males engage in more same-sex sexual encounters than was previously believed as part of managing and resolving social tensions.

We discuss this event with respect to the putative functions of homosexual behaviour in great apes. Given its rarity in chimpanzees, this fellatio between adult males also highlights the apparent behavioural flexibility present in our close relatives. In Tanzania’s Gombe National Park, a male eastern chimpanzee grooms another male. Some scientists believe that same-sex activity plays an important role in building relationships.

Among our two closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees remain by far the more thoroughly-studied and widely-recognized species, known for their high levels of cooperation especially among males, which includes sharing food, supporting each other in aggressive conflicts and defending their territories against other communities. In contrast, insights into the social dynamics of wild bonobos are available from only a small number of long-term field sites, and bonobos are probably best known for their diverse sexual behavior, which together with their proposed peacefulness between communities and co-dominance between the sexes, has led to their nickname as the 'hippie apes.

The stereotype of bonobos as hyper-sexual is an over-simplification, but it does capture a fascinating aspect of bonobo social behavior. Bonobos are one of the few species in which all adult members of one sex engage in habitual same-sex sexual interactions that occur at similar or even greater frequencies as opposite-sex interactions. In the wild, all adult females perform same-sex genital contacts, known as genito-genital rubbing or GG-rubbing on a regular basis with many other females in their community.

In contrast, male bonobos rarely engage in same-sex sexual behavior. There are several theories to explain the function of same-sex sexual behavior in bonobos, including as a way to reduce social tension, prevent aggression or form social bonds. However, none of these theories can explain why such behavior occurs so frequently only among females. To clarify why same-sex sexual behavior is so important specifically for female bonobos, we collected behavioral and hormonal data for over a year from all adult members of a habituated bonobo community at the long-term LuiKotale field site in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In addition to our focus on sexual interactions, we identified preferred partners for other social activities such as giving support in conflicts. We also collected urine to measure the hormone oxytocin, which is released in the body in other species after friendly social interactions, including sex and helps to promote cooperation. We found that in competitive situations, females preferred to have sex with other females rather than with males.

After sex, females often remained closer to each other than did mixed sex pairs, and females had measurable increases in urinary oxytocin following sex with females, but not following sex with males. Among same-sex and opposite-sex pairs, individuals who had more sex also supported each other more often in conflicts, but the majority of these coalitions were formed among females. For humans as well, alliances between members of the same sex provide many benefits, including mutual social support and sharing of resources.

There is also historical and cross-cultural evidence that such alliances are often reinforced through sexual interactions. More information: Liza R. Moscovice et al, The cooperative sex: Sexual interactions among female bonobos are linked to increases in oxytocin, proximity and coalitions, Hormones and Behavior DOI: Provided by Max Planck Society.

More from Biology and Medical. This summary was automatically generated using LLM. Full disclaimer. Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below please adhere to guidelines.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. More information Privacy policy.

We keep our content available to everyone.