Monkey love. (homosexual behavior in primates)

Homosexual behavior may have a civilizing influence among the apes, if not among human beings

People who work with primates are used to apes' planting affectionate pecks on their lips. But imagine the surprise of a San Diego zookeeper, unfamiliar with a newly arrived species known as the bonobo, when the animal gently slid its tongue into the zookeeper's mouth. The only thing more surprising than the French kiss was that the bonobo, like the zookeeper, was male.

After studying the primates for his new book Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, primatologist Frans de Waal,…