Does homosexuality exist in the animal kingdom?
Homosexuality is common across different taxa of animals. Some examples include * Bonobo apes, which routinely engage in both heterosexual and homosexual behavior; * rhesus macaques, which engage in sex play and the occasional mounting of members of the same sex; * chinstrap penguins, particularly a pair of males from New York’s Central Park Zoo who have even raised a chick together; * certain populations of female western gulls, in which up to 15% engage in homosexual behavior; * bighorn rams, where at least 8% engage in homosexual behavior; * even ostriches, where some males in a population will run at each other in a bizarre version of the normal courtship dance. Others may include bottlenose dolphins, black swans, flamingos, foxes, white-tailed deer, orcas, and lions. There is a book that chronicles all sorts of unusual mating practices in the animal kingdom (Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, by Bruce Bagemihl), which would be an interesting read if
