Animal Pride: Nature's Coming Out Story shares how gay penguin behaviour was 'hidden'

A nature documentary is to show how animals enjoy same-sex relationships in the same way that humans do - but that they've been hidden from history for more than a century.

In Animal Pride: Nature’s Coming Out Story, British naturalist Connel Bradwell discovers that scientific research has found great swathes of species displaying homosexual behaviour including orca whales, barn owls, monkeys, geese, lions, elephants, giraffes, dragon flies, butterflies and giraffes - to name but a few.

But he finds that the first scientific research into same sex behaviour, written about Adelie penguins in 1910 by polar explorer George Murray Levick was kept quiet.

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Douglas Russell, senior curator at London’s Natural History Museum, tells Connel that Levick spent an entire season watching the penguins in the Antarctic, having accompanied Captain Robert Scott on an expedition to the region.

In an account read by Russell, Levick explains how he has observed two males copulating, with one on top of the other, and then repeating the process “with the positions reversed”.

Douglas explained that the detailed papers into the sexual habits of the Adelies were written up to be published but later marked “not for publication”, adding that the subject was something society at the time would have found "difficult.” He explained: “I think they weren’t published because it was very challenging and graphic content.”

He finds it a great shame that this “pivotal moment in the history of science” went un-recorded until the museum finally did publish the papers in 2012.

After also observing video of same-sex behaviour in orca whales, Connel is told that 94 species of birds have been found to display behaviours including same sex parenting, pair-bonding and sexual activity. To explore this further, the presenter and wildlife conservationist travels to Hawaii, where he meets with avian conservationist biologist Dr Lindsay Young who has made the astonishing discovery that one third of the nesting albatross pairs in the region are both female.

She says that these birds, who mate for life, are still being fertilised by males but then choosing to bring up their young with a female partner. Dr Young says her suspicions were aroused when many of the nests contained two eggs rather than the usual one, but she was stunned when her research found that 33% of the population was same sex. “I thought I’d screwed up," she admitted. “I ran the test four times.”

Connel marvels: “They’ve been here all along, we just never thought to look. It’s pretty weird I’ve never seen this on a nature show before.”

In the programme, made for PBS America and shown in the UK on YouTube, he also looks at how mature male horned sheep spend 10 months of the year apart from females, with the majority indulging in “same-sex courtship” activities with other males.

Connel then finds an expert to explain what is going on, because it is commonly assumed that copulation in nature is solely for the purpose of reproduction.

Dr Carin Bonder, an animal sex biologist, reveals that non-procreative sex is widespread, citing male dolphins as an example of a group which does it to strengthen their bond. “It is so arrogant of humans to assume all sex in the animal kingdom is for reproduction,” she declared. “Homosexuality is absolutely everywhere. It plays such a major role in every landscape on the planet.”

She agreed with Russell that these behaviours have been known about for over a century but have not been widely reported or examined on TV. “Biologists have known about homosexuality in the animal kingdom since we started looking atanimals. A lot of this information has been hidden.”

- Animal Pride is available now on the PBS America YouTube channel:

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