SEX LIVES OF ANIMALS

The Museum of Sex in New York is having a ‘Sex lives of animals’ show until early 2009. The show debunks the idea that animals engage in sex strictly for procreation. In fact, they participate in kissing, hugging, oral sex, masturbation and "every kind of penetrative intercourse imaginable". Lionesses perform oral sex on lions, male grey-headed flying foxes perform oral sex on females, and Livingston's fruit bats and male kangaroos perform fellatio on themselves. Spinner dolphins emit cries that vibrate the surrounding water and, in turn, one another's genitals - a practice known as "buzzing".

Then there is the notion that heterosexuality rules the animal world. This is not true: homosexuality has been documented in lions, giraffes, African elephants and American bison, to name a few. Male Amazon river dolphins engage in anal, genital and blowhole penetration, and a graphic photo shows two male grey whales engaged in an activity known as "penis fencing".

Another myth shattered is the idea that organisms are either male or female. In as many as half of all animal species, individuals can be both at the same or different times during their lives. Take the blue-banded goby, a fish that lives in harems with one male to every four to six females. If the male leaves or dies, the highest-ranking female develops male gonads and genitalia to take his place.

Many other species blur the lines between male and female. In woolly monkeys and spider monkeys the clitoris is as big, or bigger, than the penis, while male Malaysian and Bornean fruit bats have milk-producing mammary glands. Male sea horses, pipefish and sea dragons give birth to their young. And in the African jacana, a wading bird, male and female roles are reversed, with the males taking responsibility for the eggs.

It’s not just a sex show. The Museum of Sex’s advisory board boasts an impressive roster of scientists including Niles Eldredge, a curator at New York's American Museum of Natural History, and biologist Marlene Zuk of the University of California, Riverside.