They're penguins. And they're not alone.
By Cristina Cardoze
"Wendell and Cass, two penguins at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, live in a soap opera world of seduction and intrigue. Among the 22 male and 10 female African black-footed penguins in the aquarium's exhibit, tales of love, lust and betrayal are the norm. These birds mate for life. But given the disproportionate male-female ratio at the aquarium, some of the females flirt profusely and dump their partners for single males with better nests.
For years the people of Boston enjoyed the spectacle of a pair of swans who had taken up residence near their beloved Boston Common. They dubbed the romantic pair "Romeo & Juliette". Local biologists wondered, however, why the eggs that they spent so much time warming never seemed to hatch. So they decided to take a closer look at their fine feathered friends. And what they found was that "Romeo" was in fact a "Rhonda"; and if they were going to hatch any eggs, and raise any little swans, they would have to go high tech. Mom and Dad, and Dad Animal biologists have observed homosexual behavior in as many as 1500 species. One such biologist, Bruce Bagemihl, published a book called 'Biological Exuberance, in 1999, which documents homosexual behavior in more than 450 animal species. The list includes grizzly bears, gorillas, flamingos, owls and even several species of salmon. . .
If homosexuality is an unnatural aberation, the conservative preachers of all faiths need to get up to speed and persuade these hundreds of animal species to stop 'living in sin' ! Have they all forgotten that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve? And how can their species survive, with couples that don't consist of one male and one female?
unidentified pals
Wendell and Cass, however, take no part in these cunning schemes. They have been completely devoted to each other for the last eight years. In fact, neither one of them has ever been with anyone else, says their keeper, Stephanie Mitchell.
But the partnership of Wendell and Cass adds drama in another way. They're both male. That is to say, they're gay penguins.
This is not unusual. 'There are a lot of animals that have same-sex relations, it's just that people don't know about it,' Mitchell said. 'I mean, Joe Schmoe on the street is not someone who's read all sorts of biology books.'
Scientists say that homosexual activity among giraffes is, in many cases, more common than heterosexual activity.
Almost a quarter of black swan families are parented by homosexual couples. Male couples sometimes mate with a female just to have a baby. Once she lays the egg, they chase the mother away, take turns sitting on the egg until it hatches, and raise a family on their own.
See also Gay animals out of the closet?.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_animals
