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In his comedy act, Ricky Gervais shows examples of homosexuality in nature, all of them from the book "Biological Exuberance, animal homosexuality and natural diversity" by Bruce Bagemihl. One of the examples is homosexuality among dolphins, having anal sex or "blowhole sex" (from minute 8:40 in the above video) depicted in a figure from that book: Dolphins getting it on

Are there reliable sources other than that book that have recorded dolphins get their freak on with nasal cavity sex?

And do they do it during heterosexual sex as well?

Just to emphasize, a dolphin sticking his little man in the blowhole of another dolphin is like a human sticking his little dolphin into another human's nose.

Andrew Grimm
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SIMEL
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  • [New York Times - Can Animals Be Gay?](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?pagewanted=all) – Oliver_C Apr 25 '12 at 11:37
  • I swear there's a video of this on Youtube. Can't look now, though – endolith May 09 '12 at 17:35
  • @endolith, find that video and put it as an answer. – SIMEL May 13 '12 at 06:28
  • @IlyaMelamed: I'm not sure I want that in my list of top answers. :D It would seem the video was National Geographic/Discovery and has been pulled for copyright reasons? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0vGamcQIYs A slightly more reliable reference: "Male Amazonian river dolphins, for example, penetrate the blowholes of other males; female bottlenose dolphins use their snouts as dildos on other females." http://www.economist.com/node/8074843 – endolith May 13 '12 at 15:36
  • most likely this is related to male dogs humping each other as a dominance move – warren Apr 12 '13 at 18:28
  • As a cetacean behavior researcher, I have never seen this in the wild. Furthermore, if full penetration were to occur, the receiving dolphin would almost certainly drown. Dolphins are ONLY able to breathe through their blowholes (they cannot breathe out of their mouths). https://www.thedodo.com/dolphins_dont_actually_bonk_ea-334771943.html –  Jun 26 '14 at 21:39
  • @MarineBiologist: It is an interesting attempt at debunking, and makes me suspicious of the claim, but it doesn't seem very definitive. They didn't find the 1985 Sylverstre article, and the "ah ha" quote is just an admission that *full* penetration wasn't witnessed. – Oddthinking Jun 27 '14 at 03:43
  • @MarineBiologist, the fact that full penetration doesn't happen doesn't disproves this, it just clarifies it. I'm sure that this is not the first time that a behaviour in captivity isn't witnessed in the wild, (parrots don't speak English in the jungle). If you think this is relevant, you can add the clarification to the accepted answer. – SIMEL Jun 29 '14 at 10:02
  • @MarineBiologist, you can also edit your deleted answer to have more sourced information and less unsourced claims and flag it for undeletion. – SIMEL Jun 29 '14 at 10:12

1 Answers1

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Yes they do. In this article from 1985 by Jean-Pierre Sylvestre

The same adult male, once more tried briefly to insert its erect penis into the blowhole of one of the juvenile male Orinoco dolphins swimming underneath it

Also in an article at the Economist: (credit to endolith)

Male Amazonian river dolphins, for example, penetrate the blowholes of other males; female bottlenose dolphins use their snouts as dildos on other females.

And an article at the NY times (credit to Oliver_C):

Male Amazon River dolphins have been known to penetrate each other in the blowhole.

SIMEL
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    These could all be one source, given that the last two articles don't mention a source and likely didn't do any observations on their own. That said, the top link does provide another source to back up the original claim – msmucker0527 Jun 24 '14 at 19:59