Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity
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Book Overview
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
One of the New York Public Library's "25 Books to Remember" for 1999
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, filled with fascinating facts and astonishing descriptions of animal behavior, Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance is a landmark book that will change forever how we look at nature.
Homosexuality in its myriad forms has been scientifically documented in more than 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other animals worldwide. Biological Exuberance is the first comprehensive account of the subject, bringing together accurate, accessible, and nonsensationalized information. Drawing upon a rich body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship, pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting--even instances of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.
Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsA scientific look at animal behavior and physiology
The thing that particularly fascinated me about this book was the broad array of variations in physical gender found in animals. For many animals (e.g., hyenas, bears) a significant percentage of their population at any time is made up of intersexed individuals. Nature is both more strange, and more wonderful, than we usually perceive. The book was a real eye-opener.
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Rated 5 starsA highly important, foundational study.
Dr. Bagemihl presents us with information neglected or even suppressed for decades. The book is somewhat repetitious and longer than it might have been, but the author is determined to break through barriers of denial and resistence and to establish the scientific basis for his presentation. He does so convincingly and challenges the scientific establishment to a new examination of the facts and a letting go of cultural...
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Rated 5 starsPrediction: This book will outlive us all.
Anthropology, geology, and even most all religions have all "updated" their views on the way the world works, based on our ever-unfolding knowledge and new discoveries. It's time that zoology has done the same! In Biological Exuberance, Bruce Bagemihl exposes the data that cries out for a new acceptance and understanding of animal behavior.In the first part of the text, he systematically builds a case for "updating"...
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Rated 5 starsFascinating account of animal homosexuality
The first part of the book is an independent 262 page exposition of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered animal sexuality. If you want to know what the birds and the bees are doing when Jerry Falwell isn't looking, this is the place to find out. Don't expect to find traditional family values in these pages. What you will discover instead is that animals aren't doing it for Darwin, they are doing it for fun. There...
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