SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A team of anthropologists and biologists from Canada, Poland, and the U.S., working with researchers at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, has found via meta-analysis of data from prior research efforts that homosexual behavior is far more common in other animals than previously thought. The paper is published in PLOS ONE.
For many years, the biology community has accepted the notion that homosexuality is less common in animals than in humans, despite a lack of research on the topic. In this new effort, the researchers sought to find out if such assumptions are true.
[...] The researchers found that 76% of the studies mentioned observations of homosexual behavior, though they also noted that only 46% had collected data surrounding such behavior—and only 18.5% of those who had mentioned such behavior in their papers had focused their efforts on it to the extent of publishing work with homosexuality as it core topic.
They noted that homosexual behavior observed in other species included mounting, intromission and oral contact—and that researchers who identified as LGBTQ+ were no more or less likely to study the topic than other researchers.
The researchers point to a hesitancy in the biological community to study homosexuality in other species, and thus, little research has been conducted. They further suggest that some of the reluctance has been due to the belief that such behavior is too rare to warrant further study.
More information: Karyn A. Anderson et al, Same-sex sexual behaviour among mammals is widely observed, yet seldomly reported: Evidence from an online expert survey, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304885
(Score: 5, Informative) by Snotnose on Tuesday July 02 2024, @01:11PM (2 children)
I've had dogs that would hump male dogs. And my leg. And the coffee table. And the trash can. etc etc etc.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday July 02 2024, @06:05PM
It's not their fault, they're just less enlightened [youtube.com] creatures, yet still capable of profound love [smbc-comics.com].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by loonycyborg on Tuesday July 02 2024, @10:37PM
Yes many animals do things like that. It makes me think that sexual orientation isn't a thing. Sexual drive isn't inherently bound to object of particular sex. It's just more likely to go there because of natural selection.But there's no hardcoded rule. If the drive would make them go for things that don't result in reproduction too often then there wouldn't be enough new birth and thus extinction. But if drive were too picky then it would too often falsely reject specimen of opposite sex leading once again to extinction.