For as long as scientists have been studying animals, any behavior observed that could be deemed "homosexual" has usually been overlooked and thought of as practice for when it comes time to actually mate.
Until now.
Recently, biologists have begun to look at same-sex animal relationships in a more serious manner.
"Here's the problem: we know that animals engage in same sex mounting, so we call it homosexual," said Linda Wolfe, physical anthropologist with a specialization in primates at East Carolina University. "But the deal is with humans it's the eroticism that's behind the behavior. We don't know about the eroticism behind homosexual behavior in animals, so you can't say they're homosexual."
Recent studies in Oahu on albatross, large seabirds, have shown out of 125 nests at one location, 39 belonged to female-female pairs.
Albastross can live for 60 or 70 years, and typically mate with the same bird throughout their lifetime.
As a result, biologists claim the birds have the lowest "divorce rate" of any bird.
The studies showed that many female birds would copulate with a male, but do everything else a "couple" would do, such as incubating the egg and preening feathers, with another female.
"Everything animals do is instinctual," said Ted Albert, veterinarian at South College Vet Clinic. "A male dog will hump another male dog, but that's not sexual activity, that's a dominance issue."
Biologists who studied the albatross said that terms such as "lesbian" or "straight" are strictly human terms and should not be assigned to the birds.
Even though the birds are doing everything a normal couple would do, they are not actually attempting to have sex.
"When there is same-sex attempted mating going on in some species, it is showing dominance a lot of times, but I think there are other species that are more highly evolved that may actually show homosexual tendencies," said Hannah Gunter, junior in wildlife sciences.
Albatross, however, are not the only species observed to have "homosexual" behaviors.
Same-sex sexual and non-sexual mating activity has been recorded in more than 450 different species, including penguins, dolphins, bears, gorillas, owls, guppies and flamingos.
While "practice" seems like a logical explanation for this same-sex sexual activity, Wolfe thinks otherwise.
In studies of the Japanese Macaque, a type of primate, Wolfe observed female-female pairs mounting each other, playful head bopping and even looking in each other's eyes.
"These are adult females," Wolfe said. "They don't need the practice--they have offspring."
Whether instinctual, dominance-relate, terms like "homosexual" or "gay" will not be assigned to non-humans any time soon.
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