New Delhi: A bull and a male donkey have formed an unusually close same-sex relationship in Ethiopia. The two animals indulge in sexual interactions, surprising researchers who documented the pair’s sustained “socio-sexual bond.”
The research team, from the University of Pisa in Tuscany, Italy, named the animals Achille (the bull) and Patroclo (the donkey) after the legendary Greek figures from Homer’s epic Iliad due to their inseparable and intense attachment. The study’s authors said that while the epic poem does not explicitly describe them as lovers, their relationship was later interpreted as such.
The animals repeatedly seek each other out despite free access to opposite-sex members of their own species. The findings appeared in a study published in the journal Current Biology.
Engaged in many different affiliative behaviours’
According to the researchers, Achille’s sexual advances were welcomed by Patroclo.
The donkey, according to a report in The Times, “Never avoided or kicked away these attempts” and “actively participated in such interactions.”
After sexual encounters, the pair often nuzzled one another. When sharing the same pasture during the day, they “spent significantly more time in spatial proximity to one another than apart.”
“They repeatedly chose to stay close to each other and engaged in many different affiliative behaviours, such as licking, rubbing and nuzzling,” André da Cruz, a doctoral student at the University of Pisa and one of the researchers, said. “Importantly, this was happening in a social environment where both animals had access to other potential partners, including individuals of both sexes and of their own species.”
The two animals belonged to different herders and met when released into the same daytime pasture on the Ethiopian plateau of Debre Libanos in the Oromia region. They returned to separate lodgings at night. On two occasions, Achille approached a different male donkey, which responded with clear avoidance behaviours and threatening facial expressions such as ear flattening. These reactions were never observed in Patroclo.
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‘Broader social relationship’
Same-sex sexual behaviour has been recorded in roughly 1,500 animal species and is not particularly rare among non-human primates, where it may help form alliances, assert dominance or reduce tension. However, sustained interspecific socio-sexual associations involving domestic ungulates (cattle and donkeys) had not previously been documented, the study states.
Researchers have observed sexual interactions between different species within the horse family, but not involving donkeys.
Once aware of the researchers’ interest, local herders provided additional contextual information. Achille displayed typical courtship behaviours toward female cattle but did not attempt to mount them, possibly deterred by the presence of other bulls.
“Our observations suggest that it cannot be easily explained simply by a lack of alternative mating opportunities,” Martina Francesconi, lead author of the study, said. “Although we cannot say from this study exactly what function these sexual interactions may have had.”
The study itself does not conclude the evolution of human sexuality, observing only that the animals’ “unusual sexual behaviour was part of a broader, selective social relationship.”
(Edited by Saptak Datta)