The Big Gay Animal Tour

INTRODUCTION

The Big Gay Animal Tour is an illustrated information zine that can be used in the Field Museum as a tour of animals that exhibit homosexual behavior! The Zine itself takes you on a walk from the Elephants in Stanley Field Hall, and through the What Is an Animal exhibit and various taxidermy exhibits on the ground floor of the Field Museum. At each stop you can learn how the animal in front of you is gay, bi, queer, whatever! The idea of this tour is to highlight just a few of the MANY examples of same sex behavior in nature and briefly discuss how same sex behavior and natural selection relate to one another. This zine was created by Isabella Rotman as part of her Animal Sex series, a group of small comic books highlighting strange animal mating behaviors. Isabella Rotman is a cartoonist living in Chicago Il, and her work can be seen as ThisMightHurt.Tumblr.com.

~ The printable PDF can be downloaded HERE.

Some sample images from the pamphlet and project:

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REFERENCES

Bagemihl, Bruce. Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. New York: St. Martin's, 1999. Print.

 "Strange Animal Behavior: Well-known Homosexual Species." Bukisa. N.p., 8 May 2009. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.bukisa.com/articles/88711_strange-animal-behavior-well-known-homosexual-species>.

"The Only Gay in the Zoo: Meet Ninio the Male Elephant with No Interest in Ladies."Mail Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169026/The-gay-zoo-Meet-Ninio-male-elephant-ladies.html>

Brennan, Zoe. "Lesbian Albatrosses, Gay Giraffes and Some Very Open-minded Penguins. So, Can Animals Really Be Gay?" Mail Online. N.p., 18 May 2012. Web. Feb. 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1279241/Lesbian-albatrosses-gay-giraffes-open-minded-penguins-So-animals-really-gay.html>.

Miller, Jonathan. "New Love Breaks Up a 6-Year Relationship at the Zoo." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2005. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.

 Mooallem, Jon. "THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SQUAWK ITS NAME." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Apr. 2010. Web. Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html?pagewanted=al>.

Roughgarden, Joan. Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. Berkeley: University of California, 2004. Print

"Homosexual Behavior: Animal Kingdom." Scienceray RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://scienceray.com/biology/zoology/homosexual-behavior-animal-kingdom/>.

Vasey, Paul L. "Same Sex Partner Preference in Hormonally and Neurologically Unmanipulated Animals." Ebsco. Columbia College Chicago, 2003. Web. 22 Nov. 2012.

Smith, Dinitia. "Central Park Zoo's Gay Penguins Ignite Debate." SFGate. San Francisco Chronical, 7 Feb. 2004. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.