An Australian researcher has documented evidence of homosexual activity in female gorillas.

We’ve seen two male lions giving lionesses the cold shoulder and a pair of gay penguins who had only had eyes for each other.

Now its the turn of another member of the animal kingdom to promote LGBT equality.

While Associate Professor Cyril Grueter was studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda, he was witness to homosexual behaviour in a number of females.

This is the first formally documented example of same-sex sexual interaction in female mountain gorillas.

Professor Grueter has determined from his research that the female gorillas find pleasure in their sexual interactions with other females.

Of the 22 gorillas that Grueter studied, 18 of them were observed taking part in gay sexual activities such as frottage and “courtship displays”.

The examples of “courtship displays” are recorded as synonymous with those that are seen in heterosexual interactions, presenting them as having equal importance within the gorilla communities.

Grueter compared female gorillas to human women, stating that “they can shift from homosexual to heterosexual sex”.

“Given that all these observations come from wild groups, not gorillas held in captivity, it is obvious that homosexual activity is part of the gorillas’ natural behavioural,” he said.

The research article states that a total of 44 sexual acts was recorded and “females of all reproductive states were found to show homosexual behavior”.

Some sexual encounters between females were interrupted by males, some of which were recorded as aggressive.

Other males however, were un-phased by the female copulations.

Grueter provides a potential hypothesis for some of the homosexual copulations as being a result of female dissatisfaction when a male rejects her sexual advances.

Other hypotheses include the notion that females occasionally engage in homosexual activities in order to decrease other females’ motivation to copulate heterosexually. Which in turn reduces other females’ “reproductive success”.

Check out the which other members of the animal kingdom exhibit homosexual behaviour below: