Same-sex socio-sexual interactions among male narwhal
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Same-sex socio-sexual behavior is seemingly ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. Although difficult to observe in wild cetaceans, aerial imagery using drones has drastically improved our ability to document such behaviors. In 2017, off northern Baffin Island, Canada, a group of eight adult male narwhals were recorded engaging in same-sex socio-sexual behavior. To describe and analyse the recorded behaviors, we developed an ethogram using behavioral analysis software. All eight individuals engaged in close physical contact and presented their ventral side to at least one other whale; five were observed to have erections, and four of those five rubbed their genital area against at least one other male in the group. Possible explanations of same-sex socio-sexual behavior in animals include creating, maintaining or reinforcing social connections amongst peers, juveniles ‘practising’ to improve their success in future heterosexual (i.e., reproductive) encounters, or to increase or decrease intra-sexual aggression and conflict. Proximate and ultimate causes for the behavior of this group of narwhal remain uncertain, as females were observed nearby, the activity occurred outside of the mating season, and this group was composed of adults, based on tusk and body length. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of same-sex behaviors amongst narwhal and raises the question of whether it is common amongst male individuals. Increased use of drones in behavioral research of this species, will likely address this latter question. Significance Statement Same-sex sexual behavior would appear to contrast the evolutionary theory of natural selection. Presuming sex and reproduction are synonymous to achieve a reproductive advantage, individuals should prefer reproductive over non-reproductive sex, and opposite-sex over same-sex mates. Observing same-sex sexual behavior consequently begs the question, why, and opens the door to investigating what kind of social benefits may result from these activities. We documented sexual interactions between male narwhals, including reciprocity, and evaluated age class via tusk size. While this eliminated certain possible explanations, such as juvenile ‘practice’, gaps in our understanding remain. Little is known of narwhal sexual and social behavior, but these data reveal how age, or rank may influence these types of interactions, and begin to shed light on the proximate and ultimate causes behind same-sex socio-sexual behavior in this species.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".