Asexuality Across the Animal Kingdom

Asexuality Awareness Week is October 23-29^th, 2022. Ace week, as it is sometimes called, is an international campaign hoping to educate and raise awareness about asexual, aromantic, demisexual, and gray-asexual people who are frequently overlooked or forgotten in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion incentives. BSM is committed to celebrating and recognizing the full breadth of its team.

Around 1% of people identify as asexual. This is around 3,324,000 people in the United States, which is greater than the population of Chicago. Despite this, asexual people are often excluded from LGBTQIA+ spaces for not being LGBTQIA+ enough and face discrimination in many of the same forms that other LGBTQIA+ persons experience.

Asexuality is not a purely human experience, however. Across the animal kingdom, there are examples of asexuality.¹ To some, this may not make sense. Many are taught that, excluding humans, most animals are driven by their desire to survive long enough to reproduce, so having members of a species who lack that drive is a contradiction. However, research into the presence of asexuality in production animals and research animals has been ongoing for many years^1-4.

Research conducted at a sheep research facility in Idaho found that around 17% of tested rams were asexual.² The purpose of this research was to determine if there were any markers of non-heterosexual behaviors in rams. This was because most shepherds only have one or two rams, and those rams are primarily purchased before they are bred for the first time. Because of this, it can be very expensive for a shepherd to purchase a ram that turns out to be non-heterosexual. In this research, randomly selected rams were presented with two ewes in estrus and two rams, and the free rams' behavior was observed and recorded. Sheep have distinct courtship rituals, which make determining orientation through observation possible. These researchers followed up this research by testing several interventions and found that neither the addition of testosterone nor castration had any impact on the preferences of the non-heterosexual rams. They did identify several brain regions that differed in size between the hetero and non-hetero rams.³

A comprehensive review by Wendy Portillo and Raúl G. Paredes⁴ details, as the authors denote, non-copulatory (NC) behavior in Murines, Ungulates, and Voles. The paper discusses differences in neurological morphology, olfactory responses, and the impacts of various medical interventions on this NC behavior. The paper covers the variation of NC behavior across different species and how ungulates have a higher occurrence of such than mice, whose occurrence appears similar to the occurrence of asexuality in humans. This paper also touches on the unique challenges of comparing human asexuality to NC behavior, due to the distinct romantic and sensual aspects of human interactions. Interestingly, they were able to identify a few papers that found some success in inducing copulatory behaviors in NC mice, including the aphrodisiac Phlegmarirus sururus extract, and endocannabinoid anandamide. Unfortunately, to date, there has not been any research on NC female animals. There are likely many reasons for this, not the least being that most animals do not have a concept of consent. Additionally, with the rise of artificial insemination and mating pens, it is rather uncommon for industry animals to have the opportunity to demonstrate their preferences.

More likely, however, the answer is more complex and related to hormones. To provide a simple example, a dairy cow will frequently mount other female dairy cows when she is in heat. Their hormones completely alter their behavior, and they will allow other cows to mount them beyond the point of causing sores on their backs and soaking their sides in saliva ⁵. Hormones have an incredibly powerful impact on the brain’s function, and non-human animals are no exception.

However, because of the complex nature of the human experience, it is difficult to apply many of the human complexities around asexuality to animals. For example, some asexual people desire to have and raise children, and the desire for such does not negate their asexuality. Sexual orientation does not define actions; it merely informs them. Just as an Allosexual person (someone who does experience sexual attraction) can choose to be with someone they feel no physical attraction to, so can anyone else, and physical attraction is not the only form of attraction a person may feel toward another.

Asexuality as a sexual orientation is under-researched. The term itself was not normalized in its application to people until 2001, when David Jay founded the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Since then, several research papers have been published on the subject. However, the research is primarily from the last decade. Before this point, individuals presenting with a lack of sexual interest were considered to have a disorder and were often met with recommendations for hormone testing and psychotherapy. Today, asexuality is accepted as a sexual orientation⁶. Inclusion of this diverse and often overlooked orientation in DE&I incentives in another way to spread awareness as well as validation.

References

[1]       E. ADKINS-REGAN, "Sex hormones and sexual orientation in animals," Psychology, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 335-347, 1988.

[2]       F. S. Charles E. Roselli, "the neurobiology of sexual partner preferences in rams," horn behavior, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 611-620, 2009.

[3]       K. L. J. M. S. F. S. Charles E. Rosellia, "Sexual partner preference, hypothalamic morphology and aromatase in rams," Elsevier, pp. 233-245, 2004. 

[4]       R. G. P. Wendy Portillo, "Motivational Drive in Non-copulating and Socially Monogamous Mammals," Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 13, p. 238, 2019.

[5]       I. D. Farmer, " We know when to breed a cow because the cow tells us when they want to be bred..," Iowa Dairy Farmer Facebook Page, 2022.

[6]       L. A. Brotto M Yule, “Asexuality: Sexual Orientation, Paraphilia, Sexual Dysfunction, or None of the Above?” Archives of Sexual Behavior 46, 619-627, 2017

 

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About the Author

Irene Lambregts formerly served as Assistant Manager of Technical Sales at BSM Partners. Originally from Idaho, her childhood was full of caring for and learning from the pets in her and her friends’ lives. Irene has a master’s degree in animal science.