This book, aimed at middle-grade or teen readers, is all about diverse sexual behavior among animals. It’s far more common (and varied) than I had ever imagined. More than 1,500 species have been found to engage in various forms of sexual behavior that are not straightforward male/female mating in order to produce offspring. There are animals that mate with either gender- essential, they are bi. There are animals that appear to be interested only in the same gender as themselves (homosexual). There are animals that form “thruples” or bonds that raise young with two females and one male parent, or two males and one female. There are animals that form pair bonds and never mate at all. And so on. I thought I knew a little bit about this subject, I had heard of the penguins in And Tango Makes Three, I knew about the free-loving bonobos and the male/male greylag geese pairings. But there are so many other examples in here that were new to me. I’d never heard of velvet deer- males that retain the velvet on their antlers and never reach sexual maturity, never mate, and usually live in small herds with other velvet deer. I looked up more about this- it’s a well-known phenomenon, caused by low testosterone and/or damaged testicles (from injury or birth defect). There are also cases of female deer that grow antlers, and some deer that are complete hermaphrodites, having all the characteristics of both sexes. Interesting. I found out that switching genders is very common in frogs, and not caused by toxins in the environment. There are also many fishes, such as clownfish and wrasse, that change from male to female or vice versa, depending on what role is needed in their community. Intrigued that the book said sometimes a coalition of male cheetahs will take care of an abandoned cub, but I could not find any accounts of that online.
The author stated (and quoted from scientists) several times over, something I have always thought myself: that animals don’t act solely in interest of “survival of the fittest” or what’s best for “passing on their genes”- instead, like anybody would, they do what they like to do. They do things because it feels good, because it benefits the now. Reiterated that for decades there has been evidence of widely diverse sexual behavior among animals, but scientists would never publish it, or when they tried to, they were denied print. Nobody wanted to make public something so controversial, or that seemed to contradict earlier studies. But as the bias of scientists is starting to lean away from strictly thinking all animals must act like heterosexual humans, and only mate for the purpose of raising offspring, and anything else is abnormal, these studies are starting to come to light. Showing that actually, a wide range of behavior and changing genders among animals is really quite normal, it’s in most populations and there are even reasons posited. That more chicks can be raised by lesbian albatross couples who breed with a male once just to fertilize their eggs. That family bonds of geese on the outer edges of a flock with two males offer more protection.
The book is interspersed with regular chapters that describe the varied animals’ family groups, pair-bonding formations and um, randy behaviors- alternating with sections where the author interviews scientists in the field. I liked that. New voices, out there finding out new things (or things that aren’t new, but that we are finally recognizing). There are also little comic pages in between chapters, depicting a bunch of animals from different species in a GSA group, having conversations which reflected the material in a way perhaps more accessible to younger readers. Not that this book should be perused by young readers, I think- but good judgement can be used. It is quite frank in describing some things, but never goes too far or into unnecessary detail, in my opinion.
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 6/23/24.
