Penguin

Aptenodytes

Sexuality and mating habits

Most penguins mate for life. They generally raise a small brood, and the parents co-operate in caring for the clutch and for the young.

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Male penguin couples have also been documented. They too mate for life and build nests together. Male couples have been recorded using a stone to replace sitting on an egg in the nest. In 2004, the Central Park Zoo in the United States replaced one male couple's stone with a fertile egg which they then raised as their own offspring http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/07/MNG3N4RAV41.DTL. This was the basis for the children's picture book And Tango Makes Three. The couple about whom the book was based, Silo and Roy, would see further interesting (if not unfortunate) developements in their relationship when, in September 2005, Silo left Roy, as well as their adopted chick, for a female penguin. Homosexuality among penguins has also been reported by a German zoo and Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium in Auckland New Zealand. http://www.chorley-pct.nhs.uk/documents/projoscaug04news.pdf

Related Topics:
2004 - Central Park Zoo - United States - Picture book - And Tango Makes Three - Homosexuality

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