Australia
Politician advises against visiting the zoo – because of gay penguins
Emperor penguins leap from an ice edge into the Antarctic Sea.
Photo: Liu Shiping/XinHua/dpa
Conservative politician Shelton has accused Sydney Zoo of creating gay penguins. What’s behind the accusation?
Sphen and Magic are probably Australia’s most famous penguin couple. The two penguins live in Sydney Zoo and have been delighting visitors there for years. The special: Sphen and Magic are males. Despite this, the two bonded – and once penguins have found their mate, they tend to stay loyal for life. Sphen and Magic even raised a chick together.
Because of their fame, the two penguins are now to be included in the school curriculum of the Australian state of New South Wales – as an example of same-sex love in the animal kingdom. But not everyone likes that. The party leader of the conservative “Family First”, Lyle Shelton, even accuses the zoo of having created fake gay penguins to indoctrinate children. Several Australian media reported on the incident.
Also read: Colony of emperor penguins discovered in Antarctica
Gay penguins: There is also a couple in Germany
Shelton claims the two male penguins were manipulated when they were given an egg to hatch. Just because they hatched the egg together, they are now one Pair. If that hadn’t happened, the conservative politician is certain the Sphen and Magic would have been looking for females.
Research contradicts this. As early as 1911, researchers observed during expeditions to the Antarctica gay penguin couple. So it’s hardly surprising that other zoos around the world also have gays penguin couple exist – for example in the USA, Denmark and Japan.
A couple even lives in Germany, in the Zoo from Bremerhaven. The two males adopted and raised a chick there in 2009. (fmg)
Also interesting: Archaeologists question millennia-old certainty
2023-07-06 17:49:13
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