Sexual Practice Amongst Animals
After posting a bit in an abortion thread about the parallels of humans and animals and sexual behavior, I thought I would create a topic about it.
Why do people think sex is an act meant for marriage? Do animals, other than chimpanzees, bonobos, dolphins, and humans have sex because they enjoy it?
It seems to me people refuse to give any animal human-emotions and traits. Some refuse to believe animals can have pleasure, institutionalized fear (its parents tell it to be afraid of something, so it is, and for no other reason), or sex for pleasure.
I believe animals do possess the capability to have sex just because they would like to. In fact, I'd go as far to say as many animals (especially mammals) would have sex more often except for the vulnerable position they are in while engaging.
Sex for Pleasure
Pleasure and Fear - What is it and what causes it?Homosexuality
Before I speak about whether or not an act of sex pleases an animal or not, perhaps we should discuss what pleasure is. Pleasure I believe is part of a spectrum that incorporates "pleasure" on one end, and "fear" on the other. Pleasure or happiness is a result of a trigger in the brain from the chemical "dopamine". In increased levels, it will give people (and probably other animals as well) a good feeling we call happiness. Fear is the emotion that deals with danger. It is believed that fear is caused by adrenalin and cortisol.
The Role of Pleasure and Fear
I believe pleasure is the biological reward for a species doing a behavior that is or is thought to be healthy e.x: eating, playing, sleeping, procreation. When we eat foods that taste good, they are generally healthy for us, and we feel happy. When we eat foods that are not good for us, our body will not give that same response. Why? It's my belief that this is due to that the large amount of things that don't taste good, aren't supposed to be eaten. I can't think of one thing that isn't edible, but tastes good.
I believe fear is the biological response for a species doing a behavior that is unhealthy e.x: being somewhere you don't belong, being chased by someone intending to harm you, covering a lie. Fear, as well as pleasure, can be institutionalized or taught by the members of its family or species, or even itself. This would explain the amount of "silly" philias or fears. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, for instance, is the fear of large words. I've never been harmed by a word itself.
What does this have to do with animals and sex?
Animals generally aren't observed having sex unless it is mating season, where a female gives off a signal to the males to indicate she is ready for sex -- usually chemical.
There are only a few animals that humans have scientifically hypothesized or proven have sex for purposes other than to create offspring. These animals are the bonobo, chimpanzee, dolophin, and human. However, if these four animals have sex for pleasure, why can't any other animal? How would we know it has sex for pleasure, since it can't tell us that it enjoys sex. Animals, besides humans, show little evidence of knowing that the action of sex is the reason why offspring are created. So, if they don't know this will make offspring, and the female isn't fertile, why would an animal have sex outside of breeding?
I believe they do it because they enjoy it. Triggering an orgasm is a reward because the primary objective of an orgasm is to help the fertilization of an egg. In a male, it is intended to ejaculate/shoot out of the penis into the female vagina. The female orgasm is intended for the muscles in the wall of the vagina to spasm, and send the sperm further into the womb.
What if animals decided that because sexual acts feel good, they would do them more often. It would promote sex in the species, beyond a chemical response. Sure, it's not a perfect system in that there is no logical reason for an animal, human or not, to have sex when a female is not fertile but it does happen. Perhaps our bodies weren't intended to have sex for recreation, but it happens nonetheless. Perhaps animals have recreational sex for another purpose we're not aware of.
Homosexuality in HumansSexuality Outside Heterosexuality and Homosexuality
Common society today considers homosexuality amongst humans to be taboo, and sometimes damnable act by their deities. Some non-religious basis for their objection is that homosexuality can not result in offspring. Males don't possess eggs, so can't fertilize each other while females don't possess sperm, so can't fertilize each other as well. There have been concerns amongst heterosexuals that homosexuals are unable to provide a healthy family atmosphere for raising a child if a female were to be artificially inseminated or if a homosexual couple adopts a child. They often contend that raising a child in a home with homosexual guardians will result in the child itself becoming homosexual. Is there justification outside religious texts for the taboo of homosexuality?
Cases of Animal Homosexuality in Mammals
Is it taboo or unholy for an animal to engage in homosexual acts since it is not given the credit of having a conscience or beliefs? There have been many animals recorded to have homosexual intercourse and outercourse; cases of homosexuality seem to occur predominantly in marine birds and mammals, especially primates.
In dolphins, Georgetown Professor Janet Mann has theorized that homosexuality is an evolutionary advantage that minimizes aggression amongst males of their species.
Male American Bison have been known to anally penetrate each other, while female cattle have been known to mount each other.
Approximately 8% of male bighorn sheep have been recorded to prefer male mates over even when given a choice. Homosexual behavior amongst male rams is associated with variations of cerebral mass distribution and chemical activity.
Primates are the biggest proprietors of homosexuality in the animal kingdom -- this would include humans. Many species of apes, particularly bonobos, have been recorded to exhibit hermaphroditic traits. Frans de Waal, who studied and wrote about bonobos says, "Same-sex, opposite-sex bonobos just love sex play. They have so much sex, it gets boring."
Cases of Homosexuality in Birds
Penguins are a very interesting case when it comes to homosexuality that may perhaps dispel some humans' reason for the harm of homosexuality. Male penguin couples have been recorded in many instances to mimic the roles we associated with a human mother and father today -- parenthood. They have been documented in the wild to use stones as surrogate eggs in building a nest and brooding (laying upon the egg to keep it warm). When they have been placed with an egg of a baby penguin, they nest and brood it, and then when it hatches, raise the penguin as their own offspring. Zoologists in Germany have even attempted to import female penguins from Sweden to replace a male in a homosexual relationship. They said that their attempts were unsuccessful because perhaps the bonds were too strong amongst the couples.
Swans are also strikingly similar to penguins when it comes to homosexual partnerships. Probably the most amazing case is with the Australian Black Swan in its male-male relationship tendencies. It has been observed that homosexual male swans will form temporary threesomes with a female swan, then chase her off the eggs after she lays them. It's been recorded that more of their hatchlings survive when compared to heterosexual couples perhaps because of their greater ability to defend a wider area. Male homosexual relationships aren't the only type of homosexual relationships in the species. In Boston, two swans had tried to hatch an egg. They failed in doing so, when it was discovered the egg did not hatch because it was not fertilized, because both swans were female.
In another study, it has been observed that 10-15% of females western gulls prefer other female gulls.
I did a little bit of searching online, and found a remarkable study of mallard ducks. I read that 19% of mallard couples consist of two males. While that in itself isn't particularly amazing when compared to the previous stories of homosexuality. I read a story about a very strange level of homosexual intercourse between two mallard ducks. In Rotterdam, two mallard ducks were in flight, and the one in front flew into the window of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam (Natural History Museum of Rotterdam). After it fell to the ground dead, the second mallard landed beside it. The live mallard duck had intercourse for 75 minutes straight with the dead corpse of the duck with only short breaks in between. It finally was stopped when the man who witnessed this, C.W. Moeliker, chased the live mallard off. It was confirmed in a dissection that the dead duck was indeed a male. Needless to say, this was the first case of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks. It is believed that the dead mallard was flying away from an "attempted rape flight". This story won him a Nobel Prize. Here are two pictures taken by C.W. Moeliker.
Animal Pornography, For AnimalsConclusion
Sometimes it is completely amazing how similar other animals are to humans. A study at Duke University has observed that apes will give up privileges (namely juice) to instead view pictures of female's hindquarters. However, the researchers stress that these observations that they want to look at the pictures solely for sexual arousal and that they have greater social utility. There are reports, however, that watching sex in real life might have that effect on apes.
Similar experiments have been done with pandas, as many zookeepers have experienced difficulty when trying to have pandas breed. They claim that showing them pictures of pandas has helped the population increase of pandas in zoos.
:wub:
Although not commonly witnessed, primates have been known to :wub: with objects that aren't particularly sexual. Non-human primates are similar to humans when it comes to sexual fetishes, as they are able to give inanimate objects sexual meanings. Thus Gabriel, a chimpanzee at the Southwest National Primate Research Center, is said to have a shoe or leather fetish; this was clearly obvious when it :wub:d excessively by rubbing his master's shoe on his penis. Orangutans have been observed to creatively make rudimentary dildos out of bark or wood.
Stallions are known to form what seems to be similar to a fetish by becoming erect when near an area it has breed in, or when it spots something that sexually excites it such as an artificial vagina. This can often result in a stallion ejaculating when not around another horse. It should be noted that it also happens often in stallions regardless of sexual stimuli. This case could more or less be simply the exhibiting of the Pavlovian "condition response" with a "designated reward" In this case, it will ejaculate because it feels good.
Other animals such as sheep, deer, killer whales, and penguins have been known to :wub:, both males and females.
Why are we, as humans, unable to give animals many of the same traits that we identify with ourselves or other humans? Is it that we wish to not view ourselves as merely animals, albeitly highly intelligent ones? Does it take away the romanticism that we associate with ourselves such as divine things such as "true love" that is not an effect of pheromones, or that we do not believe "lowly creatures" such as sheep could be so similar to us?
What do you guys think? I hope I didn't write this in vain!
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Originally Posted by felicissimus
