"A new study, published today by the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, provides an interesting overview of the relative frequency in which same-sex behaviors have been observed in an ever-growing number of primate species on Earth. It represents the most comprehensive overall review to date of same-sex behavior in primates, challenging prior assumptions on the rarity of same-sex behaviors and instead suggesting that these behaviors are both evolutionarily common in primates, and serve concrete social and evolutionary purposes."
""What we found shows that same-sex is not like something bizarre, aberrant or rare," said Vincent Savolainen, an author of the study who is director of the Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet at Imperial College London, to NBC News. "It's everywhere, it's very useful, it's very important. People haven't realized same-sex, as a behavior, is as important for the functioning of a society as feeding, fighting, making babies, looking after your offspring.""
A meta-analysis and observational review of nearly 500 primate species documented same-sex sexual behaviors in 59 nonhuman primate species, with the behavior potentially common in at least 23 species including chimpanzees, bonobos and macaques. Same-sex behaviors appear evolutionarily common and serve concrete social and evolutionary purposes rather than being aberrant or rare. Observations associate increased same-sex behavior with periods when primate groups require greater social cohesion to cope with harsh environmental conditions. Same-sex sexual activity likely existed throughout primate evolutionary history and may have been present in ancestral branches of the human lineage long before Homo sapiens.
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