Primates’ same-sex sexual behaviour ‘may reinforce bonds amid environmental stress’

Researchers found same-sex sexual behaviour was widespread in most major groups, with reports in 59 species, including Barbary macaques (pictured). Photograph: wellsie82/Getty Images

Same-sex sexual behaviour among non-human primates may arise as a way to reinforce bonds and keep societies together in the face of environmental or social challenges, researchers have suggested.

Prof Vincent Savolainen, a co-author of the paper from Imperial College London, added that while the work focused on our living evolutionary cousins, early human species probably experienced similar challenges, raising the likelihood they, too, showed such behaviour.