Part of the purpose, according to zoo officials, is to help visitors realize just how natural homosexuality is. In the past year, scientists have made a handful of important discoveries about same-sex animal attractions. Most recently, researchers discovered that a strikingly high proportion of polar bears on the Arctic islands of Svalbard are hermaphroditic. Earlier this year biologists reported in Science magazine that the bdelloid rotifer, an all-female species of tiny water animal, has been breeding without males for 40 million years. Then there's the mandrill monkey.
Male mandrills do exist, but mandrill society is female-dominated.
This is in stark contrast to most simian societies, which are comprised of an alpha male and a harem of submissive females. They don't establish long-term bonds with females. Maybe Dr. Laura should start spending more time at the zoo. An African safari to view mandrill monkeys None of the above. I'll stay home and find their pictures on the Internet.