Can snakes be gay
Homosexual Garter Snakes: So Not “Gay”
June 30, 2008 by Erik Baard
by Erik Baard
Cross-dressers are more often straight than queer , but there’s something irresistibly amusing about the fact that our language matched the words “garter” and “snake” for a species later discovered to be promiscuously homosexual in drag.
Well, at least chemically in kingly. Male garter snakes (which live in all five boroughs in a variety of niches, ranging from dusty lots and wet drainage ditches to Last Chance Pond) awaken from hibernation in spring before the far-less-populous females in an attempt to secure best mating placement. Some males will then send out feminine pheromones and linger by the burrow entrance of a hibernating female. When males reveal interest, the imposter will lead them away and trick them into thinking their deed is done. The imposter will then cease emitting feminine pheromones and hurry assist to the burrow to have his chance with the actual female.
Of course, with many more males than females, the process remains a bit messy. A happy couple will soon locate themselves at the center of a huge “mating ball” (see the photo above, from the University of Oregon) of wri
Gay snakes?
King21 said:
I am pretty sure there is no such thing as gay animals, but i could be wrong.
Click to expand...
hee hee. Certainly, there are no such things as homosexual animals, because gayness is a cultural construct of humans. Even in humans, though, sexuality is much more a spectrum than a dichotomy. If our identity weren't so set on sexual monogamy and on categorizing people one way or the other, gayness would probably not be so much of an issue. There are many cultures in which it is perfectly acceptable and even considered a part of a man's sexual maturation to have sex with other men.
There are only a very few cases of animals in which an individual is apparently ONLY attracted to the same sex (of course, sexual monogamy of any kind is vanishingly rare in non-humans (and some maybe would argue the same for humans)). However there is a host of documented homosexual activity in the animal kingdom. Some of it seems to be related to control displays, like when your male dog mounts another or when your female dog mounts any dog. However, this is not the case for all of it. There are plenty of articles written on it, but I don�
Purr-ide Post: Are Homosexual Cats a Thing?
While I talk about this topic from a scientific standpoint, this post gets a little NSFW at times given that we’re talking about reproductive behaviors in animals. You have been warned.
June is Pride month and many of us humans are celebrating our hold identities or those of people we care about. Even if you’re not part of the LGBTQ+ community yourself, it’s an significant time as Homosexual individuals still encounter significant discrimination and are at an exceptionally higher peril of being victims of violent crime.
Now, my blog and business are kitten focused so you may be wondering how Pride (or Purr-ide, to employ the cat centric term) ties into cats. That leads us to the topic of today’s post: gay cats.
To write this blog post, I spent way more day reading articles on homosexuality in cats than I ever thought I would. My search history now includes terms such as “homosexual behavior in cats” and “can cats be lesbians.” It’s been a strange day, let me tell you. But before I divide my findings, let’s take a step back and form sure we are all on the same page as to what we’re talkin
Estrogen turns male snakes into same-sex charmers
Give a male garter snake a flavor of estrogen and survey out, as the hormone turns these lads into the sexiest thing on the block, attracting dozens of other males eager to mate.
The finding, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, has implications for understanding the environmental impact of compounds that mimic the effect of estrogen, found in some chemicals and pesticides.
Estrogen, the researchers found, is key to a female's discharge of pheromones and thus, reproduction.
Here's how it works: For the red-sided garter snake, picking up a mate takes but a second and a flick of the tongue. When a male detects a possible mate nearby, he licks the female with a quick flick of his tongue.
Researchers say that the chemical cues exuded by the females, called pheromones, are so mighty that it takes but an instant for the male to determine the other snake's species, sex, population, reproduction condition, size and age. In truth, the males are totally dependent on these pheromones for snake reproduction.
Every spring, tens of thousands of these garter snakes emerge from their limestone caves north of Manitoba, Canada, for