• Question: Can all animals be gay or is it only some? Because I've seen gay penguins (they adopt abandoned baby penguins its very cute)

    Asked by Captain America to Cedric, Carrie, Ellen, Rupert on 17 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by Essie.
    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      Yes some animal species can be homosexual (in that they are mating with same sex partners) but it appears that we don’t know exactly why they engaging in those behaviours and if the individuals are homosexual in the same way as humans can be. It appears though that aside from humans the only other species engaging in true homosexual mate pairings for life (even when the opposite sex are present) is sheep. Although lots of species are considered to be bisexual – engaging in interactions with both males and females.

      Look at this really nice article which describes how explains the sexual behaviour of a range of species: http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150206-are-there-any-homosexual-animals

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      It’s something we’re still learning about but it is seen quite a lot in the natural kingdom. Penguins are a really great (and lovely!) example of this. Like Ellen said there is a difference between engaging in sexual acts with the same sex and bonding in a learn term relationship.

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