Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World

Jun 20, 2026

1h 22m

★ 0.0

Elliot Page narrates this hilarious and heartening romp through the animal world, led by brave scientists fighting censorship as they reveal the truth about our nature. SECOND NATURE — everything you didn’t learn in high school biology.

Overview

Did you know that clownfish change sex from male to female? (So if Nemo’s mom had died in real life, his dad could have become his mom!) Did you know that albatross, penguins and swans parent in same sex pairs? Or that bonobos, who are just as closely related to us as chimps, are matriarchal and have same-sex sex every day?! Narrated by Elliot Page, Second Nature follows trailblazing Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Joan Roughgarden as she meets groundbreaking scientists exploring the 1500+ animal species who engage in same-sex sexual behavior and parenting, change sex, form matriarchies, and more, debunking myths that females are “inferior” and that being queer is “unnatural.” SECOND NATURE — everything you didn’t learn in high school biology.

Genres

Documentary

Comedy

Production Companies

Annapurna Pictures

PageBoy Productions

Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World Trailers

Cast

Narrator (voice)

Elliot Page

self

Joan Roughgarden

self

Patricia Brennan

self

Amy Parish

self

Joseph Graves

self

Frans de Waal

self

Marcela Benítez

self

River Suh

Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow alongside her free-drifting descendants. While shooting this film, the directors little by little realised that they knew the street dogs only as part of our human world; they have never looked at humans as a part of the dogs’ world.

8.2

Vanishing Kings: Desert Lions of the Namib

May 27, 2015

On the edge of the Namibian desert, cattle farmers are looking for new land to graze their animals. The lions, who occupied these previously wild spaces, are hunted by herd guards, or even slaughtered when they attack cows. Will and Lianne Steenkamp lived for two years in a territory occupied by a 17-year-old lioness - a "queen" -, her two daughters and their five lion cubs. This film traces the process of empowering the young: after learning to hunt alone, they will have to leave the family pack and find young females to reproduce. A necessity all the greater as their species seems threatened.

0.0

Sky Island

Jan 1, 2010

The desert wilderness of New Mexico's Jemez Mountains

5.6

Evan Almighty

Jun 9, 2007

God contacts Junior Congressman Evan Baxter and tells him to build an ark in preparation for a great flood.

0.0

California Golde

Jul 11, 2019

California Golde is a movie. One about riding bikes in California and all the hardships that come with big, hard, ambitious tours.

6.6

Over the Hedge

May 17, 2006

A scheming raccoon fools a mismatched family of forest creatures into helping him repay a debt of food, by invading the new suburban sprawl that popped up while they were hibernating – and learns a lesson about family himself.

8.0

Mufleh Pasha

Aug 19, 2021

As young Mufleh meets a strange girl and by chance, he decides to help her, and when she thanks him for his help, he thinks that she loves him, and soon he embarks on an adventure, hoping to reach her by any means.

0.0

Born Like Stars

Dec 8, 2016

A short film by Encyclopedia Pictura.

6.1

Labyrinth of Passion

Sep 29, 1982

An array of outrageous people, including a desperate nymphomaniac and a terrorist with an acute sense of smell, seek love and happiness in Madrid.

6.5

The Grocer's Son

Jun 15, 2007

Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds.

0.0

Flamingos: Life After the Meteorite

Mar 26, 2026

The search for the right partner, place, and moment to start a family is one of nature's most crucial journeys. This breathtaking story of love, survival, and perseverance follows Caribbean flamingos through one of the most fragile stages of their lives. With Julieta Venegas’ voice and Bryce Dessner’s music setting the tone, this film offers a unique and immersive cinematic experience, capturing the beauty and struggles of these extraordinary birds.

6.1

Animal

Oct 5, 1977

Mike (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a stuntman who works with his girlfriend Jane (Raquel Welch). On their wedding day Mike and Jane are forced by producers to do a stunt for a film they are working on. Mike, annoyed doesn't look on the road and crashes the car causing them to end up in a hospital. After they come out Jane doesn't want to talk to Mike so he decides to get her a job in a film in which he is a stunt double for his double who is a star in action pictures but is in fact a wimp.

6.8

I'm for the Hippopotamus

Nov 30, 1979

In 1950, in Africa. Tom organizes safaris for tourists, secretly equipping them with guns loaded with blanks. When Slim, Tom’s cousin—a sly slacker and staunch environmentalist—arrives, the two men come into conflict with Jack Ormond, a local animal trafficker. A doctor, a friend of the duo, denounces Mr. Ormond’s exploitation of animals in a newspaper, prompting Ormond to send his henchmen to destroy the clinic where the good doctor practices. But at the medical facility, Ormond’s henchmen find Tom and Slim waiting for them, and in the blink of an eye, the two cousins wipe out these thugs in a brawl. Ormond then tries to bribe the two cousins, and when that fails, has them imprisoned for a theft they never committed. After escaping from prison, the two men rush toward Ormond’s ship, beating the merchant’s men to a pulp...

10.0

DOGMA

Apr 20, 2024

After adopting a new dog, the owner quickly realizes he's signed up for more than he bargained for.

7.6

Microcosmos

Sep 6, 1996

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

6.3

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Nov 10, 1995

Summoned from an ashram in Tibet, Ace finds himself on a perilous journey into the jungles of Africa to find Shikaka, the missing sacred animal of the friendly Wachati tribe. He must accomplish this before the wedding of the Wachati's Princess to the prince of the warrior Wachootoos. If Ace fails, the result will be a vicious tribal war.

10.0

Des-Extinción

Sep 17, 2019

No overview available.

6.5

Surf's Up

Jun 8, 2007

With a documentary crew in tow, Cody Maverick—a young surfer from Antarctica—travels to the pacific for his first professional competition. Determined to earn respect and live up to his idol, Big Z, Cody pushes himself to the limit. But all that changes when an encounter with a laid-back local forces him to rethink his values.