Homosexual behavior is extremely common across the animal kingdom. Ethologist Fleur Daugey tells us more about it.
With L'animal et l'homme
With L'animal et l'homme
Category
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Homosexuality is in nature, it's a completely normal, natural behavior
00:04that is part of the repertoire of animal behaviors.
00:08We observed it in about 1,500 species, and it was really studied scientifically in 500 species.
00:34We know very well the bonobos, so we have already heard about them,
00:38but there are many other species in which homosexuality is even more widespread.
00:42For example, the great dolphin, the grey dolphin that everyone knows.
00:46There is a lot of homosexuality between males among these species.
00:50There are even couples that last throughout life, and also among females.
00:54There are many different forms of animal homosexuality.
00:58There are cuddles, caresses, coitus, as well as between males and females.
01:06There are also three-way move-ins.
01:08There are not only sexual-homosexual relationships, there is also homoparentality among animals.
01:16In couples of Australian black swans, males will either get eggs that have been abandoned,
01:24because the parents have disappeared, for example.
01:26They will lay the eggs, they will take care of the babies.
01:28Often, they even have a more important reproductive success than a heterosexual couple,
01:33because in swans, it is the males who control the territories.
01:37So two males have a much larger territory, and therefore more food for the babies
01:42than a couple made up of a male and a female.
01:55For example, Gadot de Kerville studied pederasty.
01:59At the time, he was talking about pederasty in the Antons.
02:01He had shown this author that in the Antons, males copulated together,
02:05even though there were females available around them.
02:09So there was what he called a pederasty by taste at the time.
02:13So that, when we talk about a forced pederasty, for example,
02:16it was something that was accepted in the scientific community.
02:19But that we could think that there was a real choice, a sexual orientation somewhere,
02:23that was a big problem.
02:25And what is also interesting to understand is that there is not a big difference
02:31for animals between being heterosexual, being bisexual, being gay.
02:35In the end, there is a lot of bisexuality.
02:37Animals go a little from one to the other.
02:40There are some that will be strictly homosexual, but it is quite rare.
02:43And in the same way, animals that are strictly heterosexual,
02:46in the end, there may not be as many as we think.
02:50Sexuality modes in nature are really extremely different.
02:54And it is a component of what makes it possible to live on Earth.
02:59So I think that this is something important to understand.