‘It’s really, really unusual’: Tender bond between donkey and bull baffles scientists | Animal behavior

In ancient mythology, Achilles and Patroclus were two Greek heroes of the Trojan War whose intense bond some believed developed into a sexual relationship.

In modern science, they are a bull, Achilles, and a donkey, Patroclo, whose tender interspecies bond helped shed new light on social and sexual interactions between animals.

Researchers say the two males were seen licking and rubbing each other, with the bull sometimes riding the donkey.

The team said that while other donkeys tried to avoid Achilles’ attention and showed threatening facial expressions towards him, Patroclo often presented his hindquarters to Achilles and nipped him.

“It’s really very unusual,” said Dr Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa in Italy, a co-author of the study. “And this is the first time this has been reported in the literature.”

André da Cruz, a doctoral student at the University of Pisa and another author, said the relationship was discovered by accident while researchers were studying geladas, or bleeding heart monkeys, in Ethiopia.

“We were taking a little break for lunch, and in the distance I see something – it seemed a little strange to me,” da Cruz said. “I said to my colleagues: ‘I think I saw a bull riding a donkey.’ And they didn’t believe me.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, the researchers said the bull and donkey belonged to different owners and only came into contact with each other when, as part of their daily routine, their herds used the same pasture.

The researchers studied Achilles and Patroclo for four days when they were both grazing in the same area, and four days when only one was present.

The team not only recorded 51 mountings of Patroclo by Achilles, but also noted that licking and rubbing often occurred before and, more surprisingly, after such events.

“Rather than being attributable solely to sexual arousal, these interactions appear to play a role in extending social interaction beyond the sexual act,” they write.

Despite numerous opportunities, neither Achilles nor Patroclus attempted to mount a member of their own species, regardless of gender, although Achilles did display courtship behaviors towards some females.

Although rare, there have been other examples of interspecies hanky panky, including the case of a male snow monkey attempting to have sex with a female sika deer, and an Antarctic fur seal that not only sexually harassed king penguins but also engaged in necrophilia.

However, Palagi said there was no indication that the relationship between the donkey and the bull involved force.

“We interpret our data as a special relationship,” Palagi said, adding that the two men were looking for each other. “When Achilles approached someone else on the set, Patroclus went up to him and tried to distract him,” she said.

Da Cruz said it was unlikely that Achilles’ escalating behavior was simply due to bull dominance.

“We saw several times what could have been semen from the bull, or he could have had an orgasm, although we can’t completely verify that,” da Cruz said, adding that Patroclo was very aggressive towards bulls other than Achilles.

Palagi added that the relationship was an example of sexual interaction divorced from reproductive function.

“When two individuals belonging to the same or different species need to develop a special relationship, they simply fish from their entire (behavioral) repertoire,” she explains.

Palagi said it was unclear whether the sexual and social relationships between Patroclus and Achilles had always coexisted or whether one led to the other. But, she added, the connection appears to bring benefits, both in terms of attention but potentially also support.

Josh Luke Davis, the author of A Little Gay Natural History, said interspecies relationships were not necessarily unusual and that the widespread and common nature of queer behavior in the natural world meant it was “probably not that surprising” that they overlapped.

“There’s obviously value in reporting this type of behavior,” Davis added. “But I caution against reading too much into the meaning of this term and would worry about how it might be misinterpreted or distorted by those who already view homosexuality as ‘unnatural’.”