Revisiting Chewie the Piping Plover, and Queerness in Nature

The Warblers by Birds Canada

While working with Piping Plovers in June of 2022, Andrea Gress and the rest of the plover team, observed a same-sex pairing between two well known plovers. It was a first for the species.

But was it really?

In today's episode, Andrea shares a brief history of how queerness in nature was viewed by the scientific community, and how these perspectives have evolved. To explore this further, we also re-share an episode originally aired in 2022: Piping Plovers - A Love Story.

As promised, here are some additional resources to explore:

Watch:

Animal Pride: Nature's Coming Our Story, the Nature of Things

Listen:

A Field Guide to Gay Animals by Canadaland

The Seagulls by Radiolab

Read:

Same-sex partnerships in birds: a review of the current literature and a call for more data by Gillies and Siddiqi-Davies 2025

Same-sex sexual behaviour among mammals is widely observed, yet seldomly reported: Evidence from an online expert survey by Anderson et al 2024

Andrea Gress (she/her) secretly thinks Piping Plovers are better than all the other birds...studied Renewable Resource Management at the University of Saskatchewan. She pivoted towards birds, after an internship in South Africa. Upon returning, she worked with Piping Plovers in Saskatchewan, and then as the Ontario Piping Plover Coordinator. Years of sharing her love of plovers with beach goers has turned into a full time communications role with Birds Canada.

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