A Bull And A Donkey Are Same-Sex Couple, Bizarre Relationship Shocks Experts

A bull and a donkey from Ethiopia are turning heads online. Researchers who went to the region to study high-altitude gelada baboons got to witness an unusual display of interspecies sex between the bull and the male donkey. The observations by University of Pisa researchers have been documented in a study published in Current Biology. They named bull Achille and its same-sex partner Patroclo after two Greek heroes whose openly affectionate relationship was described in Homer's 'Iliad'. They belong to different owners and live on separate farms but meet up while grazing.

Scientists found that both these animals have plenty of cows and female donkeys to choose from but repeatedly choose each other.

Researchers observed the animals for two weeks and logged 51 mountings, which was accompanied by affectionate licking.

"An unexpected encounter led us to an entirely new research question," Dr Elisabetta Palagi, study's senior author, told CNN.

Commenting on the research, evolutionary biologist Dr Matilda Brindle told the outlet, "Reports like this are the first step towards increasing our understanding of the true breadth of sexual behaviours that occur in non-human animals."

"We know so little about non-reproductive sexual behaviours across the animal kingdom. These behaviours are often dismissed as unimportant, or even aberrant," she further said.

When Achille roamed around with other donkeys in a flirtatious way, Patroclo stepped in to stop those advances, Vice reported the researchers as saying.

Before this unexpected discovery, researchers have seen examples of cooperative behaviour, including sexual encounters, between species. Some of these examples include female Japanese macaques and sika deer, and a male mallard mounting another male duck.

The latest observations have wider implications for understanding the complexities of sexual behaviour, which goes beyond reproduction.