DARTMOUTH, MA – Researchers at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, are shedding new light on the sexual orientation of dolphins, and they say that the marine mammals are no strangers to same sex attraction. Scientists went to Western Australia to study over 120 bottlenose dolphins, and found that males of the species were “found to engage in extensive bisexuality, combined with periods of exclusive homosexuality.”

According to the study co-author, the cetaceans’ same sex relationships are “very intense.” “I have often thought, as I watched their complicated alliance relationships, that their social lives would be mentally and physically exhausting, and I’m glad I’m not a dolphin,” said Richard Connor, a biology professor at UMass Dartmouth, adding that although male bottlenose dolphins are “capable of serious aggression,” “they don’t squabble constantly.”