This is a list of animals for which there is documented evidence of homosexual behavior. These animals have been observed practicing homosexual courtship , sexual behavior , affection , pair bonding , or parenting. Bruce Bagemihl writes that the presence of same-sex sexual behavior was not officially observed on a large scale until the s due to possible observer bias caused by social attitudes towards LGBT people, which made homosexuality in animals a taboo subject.
They must realise that animals can have sex with who they will, when they will and without consideration to a researcher's ethical principles ". Homosexual behavior is found amongst social birds and mammals , particularly the sea mammals and the primates. Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species and the motivations for and implications of their behaviors have yet to be fully understood.
Bagemihl's research shows that homosexual behavior, not necessarily sexual activity, has been documented in about species as of , ranging from primates to gut worms. Modern research [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] applies the term homosexuality to all sexual behavior copulation , genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behavior between animals of the same sex.
This is a list of some mammals that have been recorded engaging in homosexual behavior, which is part of a larger list of animals displaying homosexual behavior including birds , insects , fish , etc. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Selected images [ edit ]. Male bonnet macaques , similar to the youthful ones pictured, "give each other hand-jobs and sometimes eat the resulting semen " [ 1 ] although using "hand-job" can be seen as overly anthropomorphic. Ugandan kob - "Female kob perform oral sex on each other and even stroke each other's vulvas with their forelegs.
