Zoo seeks female penguins after male birds form gay relationships
A number of male king penguins at Edinburgh Zoo are forming gay relationships.
Zookeepers believe a shortage of female birds is making them lonely, causing them to pair off.
The zoo has ten king penguins but only two are female, leaving the other six males without a female mate. Some of them are now forming partnerships.
Head penguin keeper Roslin Talbot told the Scottish Daily Record: “They have sometimes tried to physically mate with each other – not very successfully.
“But mainly, they sit together in pairs and display to one another.
“If we had four male king penguins and four female king penguins, this wouldn’t be happening. But this year we have just two females, because older females have died.”
In other gay penguin news, a male couple at San Francisco Zoo have split up after one had an affair with a female.
Magellan penguins Harry and Pepper have been a couple since 2003 and even incubated an egg together in 2008.
However, Pepper became violent after a female bird, Linda, lost her mate and befriended Harry. Since the fight, the three have been separated, a zookeeper told the San Francisco Examiner.
