“Same-sex behavior in animals exhibits every conceivable variation….Nearly every type of same-sex activity found among humans has its counterpart in the animal kingdom….”  This argument comes from the author of a controversial book, Biological Exuberance: Animal homosexuality and natural diversity, published in 1999 and written by Bruce Bagemihl.  Several outtakes from the text appear in the Science Library's latest exhibit entitled “Animal Sexual Behavior: Same-Sex Relations”.  The book was called “a landmark in the literature of science” by the Chicago Tribune and “a brilliant and important exercise in exposing the limitations of received opinion” by Publisher's Weekly.  The exhibit presents a short list of animals that have been observed to engage in same-sex relations, as well as provide documentation supporting these findings using several books and journal articles that can be found in the Science Library's collection.  Bagemihl's book documents over 450 species that he claims engage in some type of same-sex relations, and his work, as well as other works by authors such as Marlene Zuk, will make it very difficult to ignore the idea that homosexuality naturally exists in the animal kingdom.

Biological Exuberance: Animal homosexuality and natural diversity                     Bruce Bagemihl New York : Martin's Press, 1999 QL761 B24 1999 Behavior and Ecology of the Northern Fur Seal                                                      Roger L. Gentry New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1998 QL737 P63G45 1998 Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people           Joan Roughgarden Berkeley : University of California Press, 2004 QH541.15 B56 R68 2004 Sexual Selections: What we can and can't learn about sex from animals               Marlene Zuk Berkeley : University of California Press, 2002 QL761 Z85 2002

• http://www.natureaustralia.net/previous_issues/autumn_2004.htm
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_gayanimal.html

This exhibit was created in April 2005 and was designed by Exhibit Committee member Adriana Melgoza, with the help of the Reference Librarians. 

It is located on the first floor of the Science Library.

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