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Our LGBTQ+ video tour
Take our Webby award-nominated tour of the Natural History Museum and explore the astonishing diversity of the natural world.
In this virtual tour, discover some of nature’s many LGBTQ+ stories, from why pairs of male swans seem to be more successful at raising chicks than heterosexual couples to the first ever scientific documentation of same-sex sexual behaviour in beetles.
Read on to discover more highlights from the tour.
1. The hidden sex lives of Adélie penguins
A paper about the range of sexual behaviours in Adélie penguins was lost for around 100 years before being published by our scientists at Tring Museum in 2012. © demamiel62/ Shutterstock
Scientists have been documenting same-sex sexual behaviour in penguins for more than a century.
Dr George Murray Levick observed homosexual behaviour in wild Adélie penguins during the 1910 Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica. His observations were detailed but considered unacceptable reading for the general public in the early 1900s and ultimately weren’t published.
Around 100 years later, Levick’s pamphlet about the range of sexual behaviours he witnessed in the Antarctic birds was rediscovered and published by our scientists at Tring in 2012.
Find out more about Levick’s Terra Nova notebooks.
2. How fish are more fluid with sex
Based on environmental conditions, bluntheaded wrasse females will change sex into males. © Jeffry Surianto/ Shutterstock
Many of the fishes you see on coral reefs are sequential or simultaneous hermaphrodites. These are individuals that produce both sperm and eggs at some point during their life.
For example, the group of reef fish known as hamlets are simultaneous hermaphrodites. This means they produce both sex cells in their body at the same time. In a pair of these fish, one individual will produce eggs and the other the sperm. After a few minutes, they switch roles.
Bluntheaded wrasse, however, are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that they produce the different sex cells at different life stages. Depending on environmental conditions, a female bluntheaded wrasse may change sex to become male and begin competing with individuals that started out as male.
3. A lost statue of a Victorian sex symbol
This statue of Victorian bodybuilder Eugen Sandow was commissioned in 1901 by Sir Ray Lankester, our second Director.
There aren’t many statues of people in our main building. You can find likenesses of Sir Richard Owen and Charles Darwin in Hintze Hall, but did you know that one of our statues is no longer on display?
Eugen Sandow (1867-1925) was the world’s first professional bodybuilder, an international celebrity and sex symbol, idolised by men and women of the time. In 1901, Sir Ray Lankester, our Director from 1898 to 1907, commissioned a naked statue of Sandow for display.
The statue was met with criticism and outcries from the press and public, with the fully nude form seen as quite explicit. Within three months the statue of Sandow was removed from display and placed in the basement.
Find out more about the statue.
4. Female spotted hyenas have a pseudo-penis
Female spotted hyenas have a pseudo-penis that they use for urinating, mating and giving birth. © Sue Berry/ Shutterstock
It can be tricky to work out whether you’re looking at a male or a female spotted hyena. That’s because female spotted hyenas have a penis-like structure that is up to seven inches long and can become fully erect.
These hyenas live in social groups that are usually headed by a female. As well as urinating, mating and giving birth through their pseudo-penis, a female spotted hyena will also use it to greet other hyenas and in displays of dominance.
