Perhaps the stronger social bonds formed during these sexual encounters strengthened their coalitions and ultimately gave participants greater access to females, the researchers wrote.īy examining the behaviors of related macaques over multiple generations, the study authors determined that about 6% of same-sex sexual behavior could be explained by genetics.
The trend wasn’t statistically significant, but it was enough to confirm that same-sex behavior didn’t have a reproductive cost - something that Savolainen said he was surprised to find.
After examining the offspring count for all 236 males, the researchers found that the more times a monkey paired up with a fellow male, the higher his offspring count tended to be. Indeed, engaging in same-sex mounting did not negatively affect a macaque’s overall reproductive success. That could be a sign that in some cases, the couplings “could partially function as ‘practice’ for future reproductive activity,” they wrote. The younger a macaque, the more likely he was to engage in same-sex encounters, the study authors found. Science & Medicine Study Links Male Gays, Birth of Older BrothersĪ mother’s antibodies may change with each boy, raising chances the next will be homosexual.
