>How so? One is sex between two animals of the same species. Natural. One is sex between two animals of different species. Not so natural.

If you look closely enough you will find sex between different species, sex between the same gender and sometimes even sex between (different species and same gender). The previous sentence is true with and without counting homo sapiens to the fauna of the previous statement. Defining "natural" on frequency is probably not what you would want to argue <g>.

Also the plumbing used across species is more "natural" to the function than the plumbing used in same gender sex, possibly reducing health risks.

You will also find active masturbation and indiscriminant off-shooting of semen in the animal kingdom. In regions where women are more closely watched not to have sex before marriage you'll find same gender sex between homo sapiens to be more "accepted" and human/animal sex more common as well. And probably everybody has witnessed a dog trying to copulate with a human leg, so it is not always the poor used animal<g>.

To paraphrase one of Dragan's statements: same gender sex and different species sex may be control valves to allow a high sex drive in times of few opposite gender partners of the same species. Or safety valves to ensure a very broad spectrum of genes is kept within the gene pool - making sure that even people very far from the "norm" will have a chance to procreate.

my 0.00002 EUR

thomas