Sexual Practices in Nature

In one of my article, I contented that homosexuality is natural. Understanding nature helps in understanding humans. It helps us in realizing that this nature has all kinds of sexual practices and that our notion of normal sex is just one of many other possible ‘normal’ practices. Here I list some of the sexual practices in Animal Kingdom which I noted down while watching a show on National Geographic.

No need for male

A type of lizard does not need males for reproduction. It doesn’t need sex with a male at all to lay eggs. The female of this species can give birth without sex. The male has become redundant in this species, but is still around. Now, what’s interesting is that females participate in lesbian sex. Why do they do this? This lesbian sex stimulates the female and helps in releasing the desired hormones necessary for reproduction. In this act of lesbian sex, one female rides another as if it is a male partner and makes movement as if in a copulation. They even rub each other’s genitals in this sexual act. So, the sex in this species is purely for emotional reasons and not for reproduction.

Sexual orgy

A mollusk, Sea Hare, is a hermaphrodite. It is both male and female and it wants to satisfy both the organs. It can take care of its masculine and feminine side at the same time. Two Sea Hares come together and start copulating and soon many others may join them; they all form a chain or a ring to participate in a sexual orgy. Such a sexual marathon can go on for hours resulting in many eggs.

Pregnant Daddy

Male Sea horses take the role of a mother in carrying the baby in its ‘womb’. After sexual copulation, the female deposits the eggs in Male Sea horse’s womb. The male carries the egg in its pregnant womb and it acts as the incubator. It provides the nourishment and gives essential nutrients to the babies. The female moves away and continues its life after she deposits the eggs into the male’s body. The female goes onto have sex with another male. The male assumes the responsibility of giving birth to the babies. Looks like this species is quite OK with the alternative life style.

Changing sex

Nemo can change sex. Yes, the clown fish can completely change its sex. Say, if the female in a group dies, a male can turn into a female and produce eggs. There is a hierarchy in a group, and the sex ratio is maintained in this group by change of sex.

Successful Transvestites

In a snake species (red-sided garter snake?), the female is much larger in size than the males and the population consists of 90% males, very few females and some she-males (or transvestites). At a time, 100 or odd males try to have sex with one female. The female is identified through a scent. So, while the males are all trying to have sex with this one female, the transvestites simulate the female’s scent and mislead some males into having sex with them while these transvestites now try to have sex with the female. The transvestites turn out to be successful because of this diversion tactics.

Incest welcome

There’s a species of mite that shows a bizarre sexual behavior. While inside the womb of the mother, the brother mite has sex with all sister mites and then dies. These baby girl mites burst out thus killing the mother in the process and then continue to make babies. The sex is incestuous, so what about the problems associated with incest? Well, they don’t face any problem because they don’t possess recessive genes.

Monogamy is rare

Looking at the animal world, scientists wonder if monogamy is even possible? Monogamy, which is seems to be highly valued virtue in humans, seems to be very rare in the animal world. The birds, which we believed to be monogamous, turn out to be very unfaithful- in fact 90% of bird species have been found to be unfaithful. Except for few species such as black vultures, a species of mongoose, a species of penguins, a species of owl, hornbill, etc, most animal species are not monogamous. In fact, monogamy seems to be the ‘truly deviant behavior’ amongst animals. Fidelity is a rare commodity and monogamy is ‘the most unusual sexual practice’.

A question

If the god or the nature could have thought of so many sexual behaviors, can it be true that the god or the nature has deemed only certain sexual behavior to be ‘normal’ for human beings?