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'Gay' penguin pair to be parted
November 11, 2011, Friday
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TORONTO Zoo in Canada is splitting up a pair of male penguins whose affection has suggested they are gay.
The African penguins have shared the nest they built since coming to the zoo about a year ago. But as the penguins are an endangered species, zoo officials plan to separate Pedro and Buddy so they can mate with females.
The pair has what is known as a "social bond," but it is not necessarily sexual, according to Tom Mason, the zoo's curator of birds and invertebrates.
The zoo has received hundreds of calls about the pair. Mason said he received a call from someone claiming to represent a group called the Canadian Society for Gay Animals.
The story of the same-sex pair has gone viral online, leading to cheeky YouTube videos. Late-night TV comedians have jumped into the icy waters of penguin passion. Jimmy Kimmel tagged the story "Brokeback Iceberg" and claimed the lovebirds were spotted at a Lady Gaga concert.
But it is really not the way it looks, according to Mason.
"Penguins are so social they need company, and the group they came from was a bachelor group waiting for a chance to be paired up with females," said Mason, who received the penguins from a US zoo earlier this year. "They had paired up there, they came to us already paired, and it is our job to be matchmakers to get them to go with some females."
Buddy, who is 21, had a female partner for 10 years and produced some offspring but his partner died, Mason said. Pedro, 10, has yet to produce offspring.
The African penguins have shared the nest they built since coming to the zoo about a year ago. But as the penguins are an endangered species, zoo officials plan to separate Pedro and Buddy so they can mate with females.
The pair has what is known as a "social bond," but it is not necessarily sexual, according to Tom Mason, the zoo's curator of birds and invertebrates.
The zoo has received hundreds of calls about the pair. Mason said he received a call from someone claiming to represent a group called the Canadian Society for Gay Animals.
The story of the same-sex pair has gone viral online, leading to cheeky YouTube videos. Late-night TV comedians have jumped into the icy waters of penguin passion. Jimmy Kimmel tagged the story "Brokeback Iceberg" and claimed the lovebirds were spotted at a Lady Gaga concert.
But it is really not the way it looks, according to Mason.
"Penguins are so social they need company, and the group they came from was a bachelor group waiting for a chance to be paired up with females," said Mason, who received the penguins from a US zoo earlier this year. "They had paired up there, they came to us already paired, and it is our job to be matchmakers to get them to go with some females."
Buddy, who is 21, had a female partner for 10 years and produced some offspring but his partner died, Mason said. Pedro, 10, has yet to produce offspring.
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