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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Philip Hoare

Gay, lesbian and intersex whales: our queer sea has much to teach us

a male humpback whale penetrating another male
The sighting near Hawaii in 2022 of a male humpback whale penetrating another male has been confirmed in a new study. Photograph: Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano/SWNS

Whales are extraordinarily sensuous creatures. Those blubbery bodies are highly sensitive, and sensitised. At social meetings, pods of sperm, humpback and right whales will roll around one another’s bodies for hours at a time. I’ve seen a group of right whales engaged in foreplay and penetration lasting an entire morning.

I have also watched a male-female couple so blissfully conjoined that they appeared unbothered by our little fishing boat as they passed underneath it. And in what may sound like a career of cetacean voyeurism, I have also been caught up in a fast-moving superpod of dusky dolphins continually penetrating each other at speed, regardless of the gender of their partner.

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