4th and Long
11-08-2011, 01:03 PM
Zoo forces gay penguins to separate and breed with females
In what seems like a classic case of sexual discrimination, two male penguins that had fallen in love in a Toronto zoo have been forced to separate and seek female partners.
http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/17531/17531-xlarge.jpg
Thankfully, however, there is no prejudice at work in this case.
The two African penguins, named Pedro and Buddy, had struck up a relationship at the zoo but are being forced to go their separate ways, not because penguin homosexuality is frowned upon in Canada, but because of the precarious situation of their species, which is on the verge of extinction.
According to the curator of the birds, Tom Mason, it is crucial to the future of the species that Buddy and Pedro split up and find eligible female alternatives post haste.
“If [Pedro and Buddy] weren’t genetically important, then we’d let them do their thing,” Mason told Canada’s National Post.
The parting of ways between Pedro and Buddy is bound to cause a few tears as the pair have been an item for some time now.
Buddy, 20, (Buddy must be a real PILF! - 4th) and Pedro, 10 years his junior, arrived in Toronto from Pittsburgh in the spring as part of a display of 12 African penguins (six male, six female) that opened in the Canadian city in May.
Keepers at the zoo had hoped that Buddy and Pedro would soon get intimate with some of the female penguins, but little did they know that the penguins had already hooked up when members of a bachelor flock prior to their arrival in Toronto.
Since then, they’ve been nigh on inseparable, observing familiar mating patterns such as serenading one another with mating calls, preening each other and constantly standing alone together.
“They do courtship and mating behaviours that females and males would do,’’ said one keeper.
“It’s a complicated issue, but they seem to be in a loving relationship of some sort,’’ added Joe Torzsok, chair of the Toronto zoo board.
The forced break-up of Pedro and Buddy has caused a stir amongst the normally placid Canadians, but officials at the Toronto zoo insist that they have no choice.
“We have to keep an eye on the population all the time, because if we let things slide we could lose the population forever,” Mason added.
There are an estimated 60,000 African penguins currently living in the wild, but the rate of penguins is thought to be dropping by two per cent a year.
Thankfully, this story comes with a happy ending, as Buddy and Pedro are likely to rekindle their relationship once they have succeeded in impregnating their new-found female companions. Like a man on a one-night stand, they won’t have to hang around for the awkward conversation afterwards and can instead jump back into one another’s fins.
On the other hand, their relationship may just be a phase they’re going through. According to a study carried out by France’s Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, penguin homosexuality is widespread, but rarely lasts longer than a few years.
http://www.joe.ie/joe-life/life-features/zoo-forces-gay-penguins-to-separate-and-breed-with-females-0017531-1
In what seems like a classic case of sexual discrimination, two male penguins that had fallen in love in a Toronto zoo have been forced to separate and seek female partners.
http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/17531/17531-xlarge.jpg
Thankfully, however, there is no prejudice at work in this case.
The two African penguins, named Pedro and Buddy, had struck up a relationship at the zoo but are being forced to go their separate ways, not because penguin homosexuality is frowned upon in Canada, but because of the precarious situation of their species, which is on the verge of extinction.
According to the curator of the birds, Tom Mason, it is crucial to the future of the species that Buddy and Pedro split up and find eligible female alternatives post haste.
“If [Pedro and Buddy] weren’t genetically important, then we’d let them do their thing,” Mason told Canada’s National Post.
The parting of ways between Pedro and Buddy is bound to cause a few tears as the pair have been an item for some time now.
Buddy, 20, (Buddy must be a real PILF! - 4th) and Pedro, 10 years his junior, arrived in Toronto from Pittsburgh in the spring as part of a display of 12 African penguins (six male, six female) that opened in the Canadian city in May.
Keepers at the zoo had hoped that Buddy and Pedro would soon get intimate with some of the female penguins, but little did they know that the penguins had already hooked up when members of a bachelor flock prior to their arrival in Toronto.
Since then, they’ve been nigh on inseparable, observing familiar mating patterns such as serenading one another with mating calls, preening each other and constantly standing alone together.
“They do courtship and mating behaviours that females and males would do,’’ said one keeper.
“It’s a complicated issue, but they seem to be in a loving relationship of some sort,’’ added Joe Torzsok, chair of the Toronto zoo board.
The forced break-up of Pedro and Buddy has caused a stir amongst the normally placid Canadians, but officials at the Toronto zoo insist that they have no choice.
“We have to keep an eye on the population all the time, because if we let things slide we could lose the population forever,” Mason added.
There are an estimated 60,000 African penguins currently living in the wild, but the rate of penguins is thought to be dropping by two per cent a year.
Thankfully, this story comes with a happy ending, as Buddy and Pedro are likely to rekindle their relationship once they have succeeded in impregnating their new-found female companions. Like a man on a one-night stand, they won’t have to hang around for the awkward conversation afterwards and can instead jump back into one another’s fins.
On the other hand, their relationship may just be a phase they’re going through. According to a study carried out by France’s Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, penguin homosexuality is widespread, but rarely lasts longer than a few years.
http://www.joe.ie/joe-life/life-features/zoo-forces-gay-penguins-to-separate-and-breed-with-females-0017531-1