OneLastSunset Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 When I used to think I was gay, I made a lot of researches about homosexuality.I find out that the sexual orientation (whatever it is) is mostly determined by ours genes, hormones, birth order, but it's not "genetic" it's a concept called epigenetics, that determines the ways ours genes will "behave".I also find out that homosexuality is commonly found in nature, including lions, giraffes, gorillas, dolphins and so on.So I was wondering : Besides humans, is there asexuality in the animal kingdom among the animals that reproduce sexually? I couldn't find nothing about it on the web...:( Link to post Share on other sites
Schrecken Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 How about panda bears? Nah, just kidding, well, maybe not, since zoo keepers have a devil of a time trying to get them to reproduce. However, anytime an animal is kept in captivity that alters the animal's behavior quite a bit in so many ways, so studying different orientations in captive wild animals is IMO pointless. Studying an animal in the wild would be tough too (for either homosexuality or asexuality), since one would have to follow or otherwise observe that animal constantly to make sure it wasn't "caught" mating with another opposite sex member of its species. An animal may be observed refusing sex (or attempting to mate with another of its own gender) and could therefore be declared to be asexual or homosexual, but in another situation that same animal might be seen mating with the opposite gender. As for reasons an animal (assuming it is the mating season, or the female in the potential coupling is in heat, which would normally prompt the male to act) might refuse or show no interest in sex, there are a few, depending on the species. A female bird might turn down a male because she is unimpressed with his plumage, song, dance or whatever it is the male does to win a mate. That bird fully intends to mate, just not with that particular male, or perhaps she turns down several males before she finds one she likes. In species where the female must select and allow mating with the male, an observer could erroneously draw the conclusion that that animal is asexual, especially if it is unable to find a suitable mate (I have no idea if such animals will "settle", or just wait until the next season to mate, but they probably settle because that is better than not passing on their genes at all). An animal may also refuse sex or show no interest if it is of course ill or injured, or malnourished. And as noted, in order for a refusal to occur at all, there must be females in heat and males that are able to sense that. Probably the best species that could be studied to see if there is asexuality would be in bonobos (which are smaller relatives of chimps). This is the only species (other than humans) in which sex is used not only for mating, but as a sort of social currency, and also a species in which bisexuality has been confirmed in the wild. The only problem is that an individual that was asexual might be shunned socially if he/she refused to take part in the fairly constant copulating that goes on amongst members of this species. And if an animal is shunned, it may not be possible to figure out why just by observing. The only other possible way of studying if there is asexuality in animals would be to study domestic animals, which are used to being captive and being around humans. For instance, lets say you have a large social group of domestic animals that could be observed almost all the time, and if you could find one individual that was perfectly healthy (much easier to determine this in animals you can easily handle, like dogs, sheep, horses, etc) that consistently refused to mate (for a female, when she was in season, and for a male, who is presented with females in season) with a member of the opposite sex (and also not attempt to mate with one of the same sex), I think researchers could finally conclude that asexuality is present in the animal kingdom. But, until such studies are done, I think it's impossible to know for sure. It's easy as humans to want to extrapolate our natures onto animals, but when it comes to sex, most of them operate so differently than we do (having mating seasons, coming into heat for females) that it is really tough to conclude asexuality might exist. I think that it's possible, but if it exists it's most likely to occur in much "higher" animals like gorillas, chimps, dolphins, maybe elephants, whales, etc. Most animals are so driven by instinct, it would seem that as long as they are healthy that instinct will just drive them to mate and reproduce. Link to post Share on other sites
alpacaterpillar Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I think I read something somewhere about 4% of rams not being interested in mating with either rams or ewes. I have a feeling it may have been on the Wikipedia article on asexuality. That's all I can say. Link to post Share on other sites
Sally Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I tried to look up the asexual ram situation and didn't find anything, but there are a number of really interesting sheep sites out there. Sheep 101, Sheep 201, Sheep Sex, etc. The net constantly amazes me. Link to post Share on other sites
alpacaterpillar Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 I tried to look up the asexual ram situation and didn't find anything, but there are a number of really interesting sheep sites out there. Sheep 101, Sheep 201, Sheep Sex, etc. The net constantly amazes me. Found it on AVENWiki. Turns out to be 2-3%: http://www.asexuality.org/wiki/index.php?title=Research_relating_to_asexuality#Animal_Studies It cites two original studies, the link for one isn't working for me. Here's the other one: http://www.biolreprod.org/content/67/1/263.full Link to post Share on other sites
Temierus Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Doesn't the majority of an ant colony not have sex with anything? Or at least a large part of it? Link to post Share on other sites
knout Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Doesn't the majority of an ant colony not have sex with anything? Or at least a large part of it? A lot of insects have a social/class system where only one queen reproduces for the whole colony, usually with stranded male she finds outside the colony. I'm not sure this can be classified as asexuality considering it's just a role they have, I am no expert so I don't know if they would even be capable of reproduction if they weren't born and bred to be a queen/male. Link to post Share on other sites
AWhiteGyrfalcon Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I agree asexuality in animals would be hard to observe and document in the wild. Most animals are subject to the need to mate and ensure their genes survive. I agree homosexual behaviour has been observed in animals, as has rape and bisexuality. It is an interesting question topic. :-) Link to post Share on other sites
Angelnoir Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 This is a study about mammalian animal models of asexuality: http://www.revista.unam.mx/vol.12/num3/art28/art28.pdf But it's in spanish. It's from 2011. I haven't read it yet. But it's from a prestigious mexican university.(This is an only roundup of that study in spanish: http://www.revista.unam.mx/vol.12/num3/art28/ ) And it states that an asexuality akin behaviour has been observed in 2-5% of male sheep, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, rats and mouse. Link to post Share on other sites
Heart Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 It seems like that 2-5% statistic in animals keeps coming back, for a wide range of mammals. I wonder what the error bars are on that kind of study? Many studies have 5% error bars, so to study such a small group in the majority of sexual-behaving animals would be difficult... However, knowing what percentage of animals behave as if they were asexual is a bit beside the point. If these simply show that it exists, that is sufficient in my mind for now. I'll have to go back and read some of these studies... when finals are over ;) Thanks to everyone for linking them! Link to post Share on other sites
RedPanda3 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 A few months ago I was reading a book about animals, and I was surprised to read about this one type of insect, some sort of roach/beetle (I can't remember the name of it unfortunately), that the females constantly refused sex and ran from it like it was torture. it didn't seem like they had any instinct to want to mate.. It wasn't the type of selective stuff that females of other species do, but they rather out-right refuse it and run from it, and so basically have to be raped in order to reproduce. What was interesting was that the females actually evolved ridges in their backs in order to better shake off the males (I was a bit confused by that, because my understanding of evolution is that this wouldn't be possible, since surely only the females that the males are able to climb onto would be passing on their genes? IDK.) But there was a whole page on them, and I of course was interested because it sounded like the females were sex-repulsed asexuals. Haha. Link to post Share on other sites
Temierus Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 A few months ago I was reading a book about animals, and I was surprised to read about this one type of insect, some sort of roach/beetle (I can't remember the name of it unfortunately), that the females constantly refused sex and ran from it like it was torture. it didn't seem like they had any instinct to want to mate.. It wasn't the type of selective stuff that females of other species do, but they rather out-right refuse it and run from it, and so basically have to be raped in order to reproduce. What was interesting was that the females actually evolved ridges in their backs in order to better shake off the males (I was a bit confused by that, because my understanding of evolution is that this wouldn't be possible, since surely only the females that the males are able to climb onto would be passing on their genes? IDK.) But there was a whole page on them, and I of course was interested because it sounded like the females were sex-repulsed asexuals. Haha. Well, if they are being raped, it's possible that the ones that do not have protective measures are being killed in the act. After all, most bugs are, comparatively, at Hulk and Superman strength levels. Link to post Share on other sites
OneLastSunset Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 A few months ago I was reading a book about animals, and I was surprised to read about this one type of insect, some sort of roach/beetle (I can't remember the name of it unfortunately), that the females constantly refused sex and ran from it like it was torture. it didn't seem like they had any instinct to want to mate.. It wasn't the type of selective stuff that females of other species do, but they rather out-right refuse it and run from it, and so basically have to be raped in order to reproduce. What was interesting was that the females actually evolved ridges in their backs in order to better shake off the males (I was a bit confused by that, because my understanding of evolution is that this wouldn't be possible, since surely only the females that the males are able to climb onto would be passing on their genes? IDK.) But there was a whole page on them, and I of course was interested because it sounded like the females were sex-repulsed asexuals. Haha. Perhaps, the bugs that are able to rape the females are the strongest, so in therms of evolution it's reasonable that the females have developed morphologic and "psychologic" (feeling asexual or sex-repulsed) characteristcs in order to promote the natural selection among the males.Only the strongest males shall pass their genes. Link to post Share on other sites
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