Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

Failure to observe homosexuality in the wild is more often due to incomplete study or inadequate observational techniques rather than an actual absence of the behavior in free-ranging animals. Time and again, same-sex activity has initially been seen only in captive animals and therefore declared to be definitively not a part of the “normal” sexual repertoire of the species in the wild. Yet when detailed field studies of the same species are finally conducted—often decades later—homosexuality is inevitably discovered. In fact, so pervasive or routine is the behavior now known to be for some species in the wild, that scientists have had to completely revise prior assessments of same-sex activity as “artificial” for these animals in captivity. In Bottlenose Dolphins, for example, male pairs engaging in homosexual behavior were originally observed in aquariums and were considered to be the “aberrant” result of keeping males together without females. Detailed longitudinal and demographic studies of the species—more than forty years later—revealed that male pairs, as well as sex segregation, are a prominent feature of the social organization of this species in the wild. By 1998, zoologists were actually advocating that captive male Bottlenose Dolphins be kept (and reintroduced into the wild) as bonded pairs, recognizing that these constitute a “natural functional social unit” of the species that can assist captive individuals in adjusting to life in the wild upon their release. Another example of a complete turnaround on the part of scientists concerns Gorillas. Early studies of this species reported that homosexuality was not seen in wild Gorillas; three decades later, extensive same-sex activity had been documented in both males and females in the mountain forests of Africa. By 1996, biologists and zookeepers were (at last) openly acknowledging that homosexuality in all-male groups was not an “artificial construct of captivity,” and were even encouraging the formation of such groups in zoos to approximate the species’ natural social patterns. 99

Many other examples of field studies confirming earlier captive observations of homosexuality (and disproving initial assessments of its “artificiality”) can be found. In 1935, Konrad Lorenz asserted that the formation of same-sex pairs in female Jackdaws “does not appear to occur under natural conditions”; it wasn’t until more than forty years later that ornithologists confirmed the occurrence of homosexual pair-bonding in wild Jackdaws. Same-sex activities between male Elephants in captivity were first reported in the scientific literature in 1892 and characterized as “aberrations” and “perversions”; almost 75 years later, similar and more extensive homosexual interactions were documented among wild Elephants. In 1997 zoologists presented the first descriptions of same-sex activities in wild Crested Black Macaques, finally confirming captive observations made more than thirty years earlier. Because no detailed field studies of this species had been conducted before the 1990s, all prior reports of homosexual activity were based on observations in captivity, leading some scientists to suggest that same-sex activity was not likely to be found in wild Crested Black Macaques—a prediction we now know was incorrect. Homosexual pairing in Parrots was long considered to be “induced or brought forth by the conditions of confinement,” but in 1966 an ornithologist documented a male pair of Orange-fronted Parakeets in the forests of Nicaragua—the first confirmation of homosexuality in wild Parrots. Ironically, the sex of the birds was verified only because the scientist mistook them for a heterosexual pair copulating unusually early in the breeding season (and therefore he wanted to check the condition of their internal reproductive organs). Initial observations of homosexuality in captive female Lions, made in 1942, were confirmed in the wild in 1981, while observations of male pairs in wild Great Cormorants in 1992 corroborated early observations of this phenomenon among zoo birds in 1949. Likewise, same-sex courtship in Regent Bowerbirds was first described on the basis of aviary observations in 1905, but display between wild males was not documented until nearly a century later. And homosexual activity between different species of Dolphins, long observed in aquariums, was finally verified in a wild population in 1997. 100Today, homosexuality in many species is still known only from captive studies, but it is likely that most, if not all, of these will follow this same pattern and eventually be confirmed by field studies. Perhaps it is finally time for scientists to acknowledge that homosexuality in captive animals is nearly always an expression of their normal behavioral repertoire, rather than a result of their captivity.

Another point to keep in mind is that the distinction wild versus captive is in some sense a false dichotomy, since in actuality there is a continuum of degrees of confinement, “artificiality,” and human intervention in the living conditions of animals. At one extreme are truly “wild” animals that have experienced no, or virtually no, contact with humans—an increasingly rare phenomenon in the contemporary world. At the other extreme are domesticated animals that have been bred and raised in captivity for many generations, often to the point of being genetically distinct (as a separate species or subspecies) from their wild counterparts. In between, there is a whole spectrum of contexts and factors. Toward the more “wild” end of the continuum, there are free-ranging species that have nevertheless experienced varying degrees of human contact or interference, such as Killer Whale populations that have been heavily poached, or wild Tree Swallows that nest in colonies of human-supplied nest boxes, or Grizzly Bears living in “disturbed” habitats, or wild Atlantic Spotted Dolphins that are habituated to the presence of people. 101There are also semi-wild animals, a cover term that includes a host of different situations. For instance, unconfined animals may nevertheless be tame (e.g., Greylag Geese), while animals on reserves may be wild or “free-ranging” within a confined but extensive territory, often hundreds or thousands of acres in size (e.g., Bison, Cheetahs). Transplanted populations consist of entire troops or herds that have been moved, their social organization and demographics intact, to a new (often more restricted) environment, sometimes because they are endangered in their natural habitat (e.g., Rhesus Macaque troops transplanted from India to Puerto Rico, Blackbuck herds moved from India to France). Another semi-wild situation involves animals that are recently extinct in the wild and therefore can only be observed in captivity (e.g., Takhi, Père David’s Deer). In many cases such species are kept in conditions that approximate their “former” wild habitat and social organization as closely as possible, and in some instances they are even being slowly reintroduced to the wild from their captive populations. “Provisioned” animals are wild but supplied with food and varying amounts of human contact (e.g., Japanese Macaques), while “rehabilitated” animals are formerly captive (and possibly wild-born), but reintegrated into wild populations (e.g., Orang-utans). Finally, feral species are domesticated animals that have escaped and “gone wild,” establishing their own free-ranging populations (e.g., Water Buffalo, Mute Swans, Rock Doves).

Among captive animals, a wide variety of factors—each of which represents a continuum of its own—must also be considered when assessing the “artificiality” of their confinement: Are the animals wild-born or raised in captivity? Are they tame and/or trained, or do they have little or no contact with humans? Are they free-ranging within an outdoor enclosure (e.g., at a zoo or wild-animal park) or are they kept in restrictive cages (e.g., in a laboratory)? Are they living in mixed-sex groups or sex-segregated groups—and which is typical of wild populations? How closely does their social organization in captivity approximate that of wild animals, in terms of the size and number of social groups, the sex and ages of the animals making up those groups, and the transiency or stability of such groups? With regard to the occurrence of homosexuality, virtually every situation along this continuum—and every semi-wild context—has been claimed to be “artificial” to one degree or another, or else “natural” enough not to warrant concern. Yet the fact that homosexuality has been observed in virtually every one of these contexts argues for the relative independence of this behavior from whatever conditions of “captivity” or “wildness” may prevail. Moreover, what constitutes a “natural” captive context is often directly counter to preconceived ideas. Regarding Cheetahs, for example, a number of researchers have commented that keeping males and females together in captivity is actually something of an “artificial” situation (since it seems to contribute to an inhibition of heterosexual courtship and mating); conversely, same-sex pair-bonds appear to be integral to the “psychosocial well-being” of males. Ironically then, sex segregation in captivity is actually more “natural” for this species, since it reflects the Cheetah’s social organization in the wild (a situation that is also true for many other species in which males and females typically live apart from each other). 102