Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Glove Puppet by Neal Drinnan

The Pleasure Principle by Michael Bronski

And the Band Played On

by Randy Shilts

Biological Exuberance

by Bruce Bagemihl

The Sex Squad by David Leddick

“Bagemihl’s monumental Biological Exuberance embraces paradox and celebrates seemingly incompatible phenomena while forging a compelling argument about the very essence of existence … . It is a landmark in the literature of science.”

—Chicago Tribune

“A brilliant and important exercise in exposing the limitations of received opinion, this book presents to the lay reader and specialist alike an exhaustively argued case that animals have multiple shades of sexual orientation … . What might so easily have turned into a tub-thumping activist tract hitched to the need for acceptance of homosexuality in humans is instead elevated to a hugely inclusive, celebratory biological interpretation of the world.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Biological Exuberance is a welcome antidote to the deluge of zoological research which equates sex with reproduction. It contains a wealth of information and is truly impressive in terms of its scope and its depth. Bagemihl avoids pat explanations in favor of rich analyses that do real justice to the complexities of his subject matter. His treatment of homophobia and heterocentrism in zoology is both brave and honest. Biological Exuberance will surely be considered the definitive source on the subject of nonreproductive sexual behavior in animals for many years to come and could well prove to be a watershed in terms of future research in this area.”

—Dr. Paul L. Vasey, zoologist, Concordia University

“Now and then a work comes along and firebombs a set of passionately held convictions … . Biological Exuberance, while not exactly a scientific revolution, is at least fodder for a stunning paradigm shift, this time in the realm of animal sexuality, and ultimately, human sexuality. It does, in fact, challenge our whole notion of the word ‘natural.’”

—Gear magazine

“In an encyclopedic tour de force, Bruce Bagemihl demonstrates just how natural homosexuality actually is … . As interesting as this catalog is, the task Bagemihl sets out for himself is far more fascinating. In the first half of his book, he takes as close a look at the scientists who have studied animal behavior as he does at the behavior they have studied … . We see how even well-meaning scientists bring culturally determined, preconceived biases to their research … . In the face of such homophobia in the scientific arena and in light of the amount of data he has amassed, it would not have been surprising if Bagemihl had turned his text into a piece of potent political writing, arguing that his data demand acceptance of homosexuality in humans. Instead, he allows the scientific record to speak for itself, and it certainly speaks more powerfully than could any political tract.”

—Dr. Michael Zimmerman, biologist, author of Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense

“Bagemihl’s work is tinged with comedy as he describes how biologists and zoologists have for years stifled or skirted the fact that animals under their observation are up to all sorts of naughtiness … his book is more than a polemic of sexual politics or a queering of zoology … . Instead Bagemihl is more or less taking the recent revolution in attitudes to human sexuality into the ‘natural’ world.”

—The Times Higher Education Supplement (London)

“There are certain books that seem, as soon as they have appeared, to have been nothing less than predestined. Biological Exuberance is just such a work. It’s a masterpiece of unconscious humor … alternately indignant about the way the truth about animal homosexuality has been suppressed in the past and rhapsodic about its riches around the world … [With] page after page of irresistible entertainment …this book has a lot to add to the gaiety of nations.”

—Evening Standard (London)

“Biologist Bruce Bagemihl has ‘outed’ nature and brought it into a post-Darwinian, gay-friendly world … . General readers will find the text elegantly written, convincing, and extremely engaging. The photographs and illustrations documenting sexual diversity also make it an unusual coffee table book.”

—Washington Blade

“Much, much more fun than reading E. O. Wilson. A thoroughly researched refutation of the attitudes of sociobiology … It pops the Victorianism out of Darwinism and muscles the uptight, mechanical model of evolution toward a more accurate understanding of Nature’s version as sloppy and exuberant … . I haven’t read a more stimulating book in biology in a decade.”

—Dr. Peter Warshall, biologist and editor, Whole Earth magazine

“The topic is hot stuff, and it could have easily generated some superficial and even sensationalistic pop biology. Instead, Bruce Bagemihl has produced a lengthy, scholarly, and multifaceted work … . In an era when increasing numbers of people grow up in urban environments with little contact with nature, it is important that biologists transmit to each new generation the capacity to marvel at the extravagance of nature. The author’s contribution is to show that animal sexual behavior may well be another manifestation of this same richness and therefore equally deserving of appreciation and wonder.”

—Dr. Elizabeth Adkins-Regan, zoologist, Cornell University

“Bagemihl [has] produced one phenomenal book on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered animal life … . Fascinating, page-turning in its own way, and full of pictures of homosexual matings and sexual congress among our furry and feathered friends, Biological Exuberance is one of the most readable scientifically based books of the year. Get this one. It is amazing.”

—barnesandnoble.com (official review)

“In this astounding book, Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexuality is little short of ubiquitous in nature … . Bagemihl draws on, and persuasively interprets, a vast amount of data, going back many decades … [and] is eloquent about the wrongheadedness of the dominance argument … . It’s a small criticism of Biological Exuberance to say that it comprises two or three books—only one of them a world-changing piece of work.”

—The Observer (London), Literary Editor’s selection

“Bagemihl amasses a wealth of information on these topics [homosexuality and nonreproductive