Researchers in Ethiopia Discover Male Donkey and Bull in Committed Relationship

Some pretty gay interspecies behavior has been spotted in the Ethiopian Highlands. The pairing? A male donkey, Patroclo, and a bull, Achille, who are named after the ancient Greek heroes, Patroclus and Achilles, known for their affectionate relationship in Homer’s Iliad.As CNN reported, citing a new article in the journal Current Biology, the duo encountered one another over the course of four days in March, with the bull mounting the same donkey a whopping 51 times. The researchers, who were originally in the area to document and report on high-altitude gelada baboons, were fascinated by the dynamic.The donkey and bull had separate owners and did not regularly live together. The stars aligned for the pair when they were brought to the same grazing area by chance, and sought each other out despite having potential mates available from both sexes and their own respective species to choose from.Achille was observed continuously mounting Patroclo without objection from the donkey — and, in fact, Patroclo “frequently presented his hindquarters toward Achille and nipped him,” according to the Current Biology correspondence piece. Achille had also displayed common mating behavior between bulls and cows by licking Patroclo’s body and giving him soft head butts. Though this behavior was a novel circumstance for the researchers, CNN noted that the local herders didn’t seem phased by Patroclo and Achille, having observed their interactions over a longer period of time, though it’s uncertain how long the pair have been involved in this way.Even though many other examples of interspecies “cooperative behavior” — including various kinds of sexual encounters — have been documented by scientists, what sets Patroclo and Achille apart is their commitment to each other.“Both animals had access to other potential partners, including individuals of their own species and of both sexes, yet they preferentially associated with each other,” Dr. Elisabetta Palagi,