mprice at mindlink.bc.ca (Michael Price) writes:

<< Interesting to note that juvenile gulls have to use certain postures to
forestall attack by adult gulls, even from their own parents. It's a good
thing human babies are born with a similar set of preprogrammed
aggression-inhibiting behaviors: humans are a fairly irritable type of ape
and a human baby importuning for food and comfort is one of the most
un-ignorable things there is in life. An animal or an adult human attaining
the same level of aggro around humans without working the same suite of
inhibitory behaviors is usually asking for it. >>

You will be sorry that I feel suddenly compelled to bring this up. I've
contemplated the subject for a few years now figuring it would be too touchy
for the squeaky clean 'tweeters' audience (sic). The subject kinda wanders
off into the gray area of the taboo. Uh-oh. But since I've gotten your
undivided attention, here comes "The Jerry Springer Show" in the avian world.

Each spring, and especially during the month of May, down on the rocks, and
on one rock is particular which is unavoidable in our line of sight while
otherwise we 'scientifically' monitor gray whale cow/calf migration at Point
Piedras Blancas, San Luis Obispo Co., California, carries on all this blatant
and tireless sexual activity all day long, day after day, week after week,
repeatedly over and over amongst Western Gulls in particular. Okay, nothing
terribly unusual or disturbing about that per se (except that I can't).
Western Gulls doing what Western Gulls do. But here's the twist. One of the
gulls receiving most if not all of the butt-end attention from amorous males
is a juvenile. We call her 'Lolita'. Actually that might be presumptuous;
hell, 'it' could be 'Larry' for all we know; they are Western Gulls afterall
and behaviors such as homosexuality has been well documented in
ornithological literature. Okay, fine.

But, what's going on here with juvenile Western Gulls getting gang-banged by
every horny Western Gull that happens to come along the beach? It's like a
truck stop down there; the Aurora strip if you will. I'm not kidding! This
juvenile, late first year Western Gull sits there all day long. The 'johns'
are at times I think the parents (or maybe just the male) as well as the
occasional 'john' stopping off for a 'quickie', then carrying onward and
northward up the beach. Throughout the Spring, every northward dispersing
Western Gull from southern California and points south follows the same path
along and over the beach and rocky coastline which includes every little
nuance of twist and turn. True coast huggers all the way and usually in
intermittant packs of 20-50+. When they are in packs, they usually just keep
going. It's the cruising single adult one has to watch out for.

Meanwhile, 'Lolita' (or 'Larry') just patiently stands around there waiting
and baiting for the occasional and opportunistic horny customer to stop off
for a brief sexual liaison. Sometimes not so brief. Some episodes can last
for up to 2 minutes with the adult standing on top, wings aflutter, and
achieving what in scientific and ornithological terms is called the 'cloacal
kiss' while the juvenile cowers and otherwise takes it all in stride.
Curious about this year we noted, that once the deed was done and the adult
had stepped off, the juvenile would assume a characteristic begging posture
which most of us are familiar with and which is especially conspicuous
amongst fledgling gulls and terns. The adult sometimes would cough up some
rewarding morsel (payment?), then either mount the juvenile again or leave.
More often then not, there was no feeding, reward, or payment. Sometimes,
these repeat mounting / begging / mounting episodes might be repeated a
half-dozen times before the adult would finally fly off. Whether or not this
is a true sexual liaison we really can't tell. It could be a form of 'hands
on' sex education I suppose. I can't determine for sure who exactly or what
relationship the adults may have directly with the juvenile. I would tend to
think that most of the time the affectionate adults are the parents, the
parent male at least, but that's just speculation. For sure though, there
are the occasional and presumably unrelated opportunistic adults that are
involved now and again.

So what exactly is the deal here? (1) incest, (2) sex education, (3)
child/teen prostitution, (4) pedophilia?? Where's the gull police? Birds
aren't people? Maybe they are. Maybe the reincarnate of a certain kind of
people who had a shady earlier life. What's this possibly imply amongst you
staunch hard core lariopiles and gull fanatics out there, ...hummhhhh?? ;-))

I've always kind of humored myself in imagining that pinnipeds, especially
elephant seals, were the reincarnation of especially 'bad people'. They, and
especially those in the Antarctic regions, lay around all day, days and weeks
on end, packed enmass in stinking disgusting excrement infested mud wallows,
covered with flys, belching and farting, drooling, and blowing yellow-green
snot from their noses. These scenes are truely a sight to behold if not a
sheer image of Hell on Earth.

Next up on 'Springer' -- juvenile male gray whale sex orgies at Piedras
Blancas. Seven juvenile males engaged in a ball of sexual decadence for
several hours 100-200 meters off the point, flailing erect peni to the wind
for all of God and the world to see, and more, while we can do nothing but
remain spellbound and stand in awe....... Whoops! ...never mind; wrong
listserv. Better post this one on the 'gay animal porn' website... if there
is one... which there probably is.
**** Adults only! <A HREF="http://weber.u.washington.edu/~dvictor/">click
here!
</A> ****

Richard Rowlett, scientific voyeur par excellence, (Pterodroma at aol.com)
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA
.....with tales like that, this should read 'boring' Bellevue (Eastgate) by
comparison
.........but a blessedly calm refuge from all this animal decadence in my
'other world'.