Primates
Baboons
Adult male Savanna Baboons, Papio cynocephalus,
and adult female Hamadryas Baboons, Papio hamadryas, may mate with
juvenile animals, incestuos matings are common in inbred trrops. Adult
male Savanna baboons sometimes rape younger females, often seriously injuring
them. Many male baboons act as "baby-sitters" for infants, altough occasionally
the youngsters become injured during fights between their baby-sitter (or
"kidnapper") and other males.
Bonnet Macaque and Crab-eating Macaque
Macaca radiata and Macaca fascicularis.
Incestuos mother-som matings which result in pregnancy do occur. Males
can develop intense sexual friendships with one another, especially between
older and younger males.
Capuchin monkeys
Cebus albifrons. Young males often suck and
fondle the scrotum of older males.
Common Chimpanzee
Pan troglodytes. Mothers engage in sexual
activity with their infants fairly often. Young females typically experience
a one-to-three year period of adolescent sterility after their first menstruation,
during which time they mate heterosexually without concieving. Incestuos
matings between ADULTS are not common.
Gorrilla
Gorilla gorilla. Younger animals frequently
participate in non-penetrative sexual activity. Mountings of the later
type are usually incestuos, involving siblings, half siblings or (more
rarely) parents.
Langurs and Leaf Monkeys
Nilgiri langur and Presbytis tellus.
A large proportion of male Hanuman Langurs are non-breeding. Sexual interaction
between adults and juveniles has not been observed. the breeding system
is characterized by hostility between the sexes and towards infants. A
systematic pattern of infanticide is prominent in Hanuman langurs, males
attempting to gain sexual access to females often brutally kill their infants,
in some populations accounting for 30-60% of infant deathes. Abuse and
neglect by females is common, 12 % of mother infants and 17% of baby-sitter
interactions with infants are abusful. Mistreatment includes abandonment,
dangling, dropping or dragging the baby, showing it against the ground,
biting, kicking and throwing infants out of trees. Young females may kidnap
a baby from a neighboring group, which sometimes results in its death from
mishandling or neglect.
Lion tamarins
Leontopithecus rosalia. Sometimes mount their
own offspring, including adolescents and younger individuals.
Macaques
Macaca fuscata.Homosexual pairings occur among
females of all ages, from adolescent to the very old, and sometimes an
adult female will pair with a pubescent female. Interstingly, an incest
taboo is in effect for homosexual pairings but not heterosexual courstships.
A unique form of baby sitting has developed. Altough
males in this species do not typically participate in parenting, high ranking
males in some populations take care of infants that are not their own for
short periods. They groom, carry, embrace, and protect the infants, usually
with the consent of their mothers. A few male caretakers interact sexually
with infants (usually females), masturbating themselves while carrying
them or even thrusting against them.
Oranga-utan
Pongo pygmaeus. Mothers frequently engage
in incestuos contact with their infants, manually or orally stimulating
thier penis or clitoris, or being stimulated by the infant, and may even
mount the infant. Adolescents (7-10 years old) engage in full anal intercourse
with erection of penis, pelvic thrusting, penetration and ejaculation.
Sexual bonding betwen younger animals of the same sex occurs frequently.
Pig-tailed Macaque and Crested Black Macaque
Macaca nemestrina and Macaca negra.
Males, especially younger ones, use a number of ritualized erotic "greeting"
gestures with one another, including embracing, face-licking or kissing,
fondling or grabbing of the erecte penis, mounting and rump fingering.
Infant and very young male crested blacks often mount adult females, performing
pelvic thrusts and even achieving penetration.
Proboscis and Golden Monkey
Nasalis rivatus and Pygthrix xellana.
Male homosexual mounting, also in the front to back position, and with
pelvis thrusting - occurs in younger animals (adolescent or juvenile) and
is often a part of play wrestling matches. It may also ne interspersed
with masturbation, in which the mounting male stimulates his penis with
his hand.
Pygmy Chimpanzee
Pan paniscus.Sexual behavior between adults
and infants of both sexes is common - about a third of the time it is initiated
by the infant and may involve genital rubbing and full copulatory postures,
including penetration of an adult female by a male infant.
Both adult males and females interact sexually
with three to nine year old adolescents and juveniles. Young females go
through a 5-6 year period called adolescent sterility during which they
actively engage in heterosexual mating, often with adults, but never get
pregnant.
Rhesus Macique
Macaca mulatta. Adult-juvinile sexuality,
primarily mounting, but also fellatio, including with infants, may account
for 15% of all sexual activity. females of all ages participate in a type
of "baby-sitting". In ome cases the baby sitter engage in aggressive or
sexual activities with the infants as well and may even try to 'kidnap'
another female's baby. Males, who generally do not particiopate in parenting,
may also also occcasionally engage in similar behavior and may even adopted
orphaned infants.
Stumptail Macaque
Macaca arctoides. Male stumptails form intense
sexual freindships. The partners in a sexual freindship may be of he same
age, or one may be considerably younger than the other, perhaps even an
infant. Female stumptails also form sexual friendships with one another.
White Handed Gibbon and Siamang
Hylobates lar and Hylobates syndactylus.
Heterosexual incest is prominent in Gibbons. Siamang mothers and fathers
both interact sexually with their offspring of the opposite sex, as do
siblings. Adult males sometimes perform copulation like thrusting with
daughters, as well as oral and manual stimulation of their genitals. In
one case, a Siamang father was observed fondling his daughter's vulva with
his fingers while his younger brother licked her clitoris. Mothers may
invite their juvinile sons - as young as four to five years - to lick and
groom their genitals, usually with no hostile reaction from the father.
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Young Bonobos
Kissing
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Marine Mammals
Bottlenose Dolphins
Tursiops truncatus. From age 10 onward, most
male dolphins form pair-bonds with another male, and because they do not
father calves until they are 20-25 years old, this can be an extended period
- 10-15 years - of principally same sex interaction. Young dolphins are
sexually precocious, and incestuos copulations have been observed between
males a few months old and their mothers. Both male and femal bottlenose
dolphins also interact heterosexually with Atlantic Spotted dolphins,...
adults often direct sexual behaviors towards juveniles during these interactions
(which include mounting).
In captivity Bottlenose Dolphins have been observed
harrassing mothers o "kidnap" their calves and even behaving sexually towards
infants, including trying to mate with them.
Northern Elephant Seals
Mirounga angustirostris. Some male Northern
Elephant Seals try to copulate with weaned pups - about half of all pups
are subjected to such forced mating or rape attempts, which they usually
violently resist. In some cases the pups are severely injured by the bulls,
with deep gashes and punctures from neck bites. Aggressive sexual behavior
by bulls is the leading cause of mortality among pups in the breeding ground,
accounting for the death of 1 in 200 pups each year.
Orca or Killer Whale
Orcinus orca. Altough postreproductive females
no longer procreate, they may still participate in sexual activity, often
with younger males. Heterosexual interactions occur between adults or adolescents
of both sexes AND youngsters (juveniles as well as calves). Some incestuos
behavior ahs been observed for example betweeen an adolescent male and
his juvenile sister.
Sources
Bagemhil,
Bruce. 1999. Biological
exuberance: Animal homosexuality and natural diversity. New York: St.
Martin's Press.
de
Waal, Frans B.M. 1995. Bonobo Sex and Society. Scientific American,
March 1995, 82-88
Yekes, Robert M. & Ada W. Yekes.
1929. The Great Apes: A study of anthropod life. New haven: Yale University
Press.
Credits
-- Border drawing from Yekes & Yekes (1929) after Gesner
(1602).
-- Young chimpanzee from Yekes & Yekes (1929) after
I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1851)
-- Bonobo's kissing from Bagemhil (1999), photo by Frans
de Wahl, reprinted from de Wahl (1995). Copyright 1995. University
of Chicago Press
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