Posted on 02/08/2006 2:53:22 PM PST by presidio9
Six gay penguins at a German zoo are still refusing to mate with females of the species flown in from Sweden in 2005, the zoo said.
The problem was that the female Humboldt penguins have proven too shy in their advances, the director of the zoo in the northern port city of Bremerhaven said.
"The Swedes will not make the first move," Heike Kueck said.
The females were flown in last year in a bid to bring the males to mate and help save the Humboldt species from extinction.
Kueck said last year she was optimistic the initiative would be successful because zoo keepers had noticed that at one point a female penguin had managed to cause a couple of males to "separate".
The zoo has 10 male penguins of which six have shown strong signs of preferring male company and formed couples among themselves.
The initiative to "turn" the penguins and make them mate had prompted a furious response from gay rights groups.
In a statement posted on its Internet website, the zoo on Wednesday sought to defend itself from fresh criticism.
"We will be delighted if the penguins form even one heterosexual couple and manage to produce first an egg, and then a little one," it said.
"But of course we accept the male couples that have formed and we are not trying to enforce heterosexuality, as we were accused of doing last year."
Update on the 'gay zoo penguins '
They arent freaking gay, they have a friend. Of course it couldnt be anything about them being out of their natural environment could it?? Thats to much of a stretch to explain "odd" animal behaviour. After all, tigers that are in the zoo pace back and forth in their 'habitat' b/c they are worriers not b/c they are living in cages when they should be running around killing stuff.
A lot of strange behaviour happens in zoos, thats the nature (if you will) of removing something from its home.
take me and submerse me in jello while menataurs and pixies stare at me and prod me, and I'm certain I'm gonna act differently than I used to.
Idiots. There are no gay penguins. Gosh, german zoos suck.
I guess they sodomize each other too?
Penguins do not have marriages -they are animals; -- Hence your arguments are as baseless as the homosexual activists that claim penguins are homosexuals or that humans can use animals as a moral compass...
The argument that society should pattern itself after animals because some humans CHOOSE to act like animals is profoundly absurd. If you disagree then be true toyour principles -log off your computer, strip off your clothes and find a zoo to reside in...
Dude, relax. it was parody.
Understand, and understood. I can only type out the "eighth grade biology" information so many times in response to the "gay penguins in the German zoo" issue, however, and was venting earlier about my own frustration with the thread-worn issue.
You're right in that it's the same tiresome mantra as is "global warming."
Speaking of biology, what was being taught when I was still in university studying Biological Sciences is that the world's scientific community advises that the Earth is on the verge of the NEXT ICE AGE. That's been academic truth and being taught for a while now, but you'd never know it from the MSM, and that is that the planet will continue to warm up and then we'll quickly plummet into another Ice Age and in about fifty or so more years, and, it's because of the Sun's activity and our Earth orbit. Has little to do with use of petroleum products as to atmosphere (somewhat but that is not causal of the outcome predicted).
Ha, o.k., then.
I see in several referances, that the males prefer male company. I see no mention of them trying to mate. How do they know they are "couples"?
Some created nests and tried to incubate rocks.
The fact is is that birds pair bond and penguins are among those birds that pair bond for life. Once bonded with another individual (these in this zoo population were raised in an all male population such that once they grew of age and began pair bonding, there were only other males available...and, they literally "knew not females" -- pair bonding is a primal urge for all animal life (it's just that certain birds pair bond for life and don't rebond with the seasons like bears and such) and when it's time, it's time, and they go about trying to pair bond with the population available to them (d'oh).
Once females were introduced to this population, some of the male penguins already in pair bonds did the miraculouse thing and rebonded with females and then successfully reproduced, abandoning their "first" bonded "mate" (the other male). NOW THAT is the ACTUAL STORY HERE, given that birds that pair bond RARELY IF EVER bond again with another individual, even when one of the two dies (geese, for instance). SO THE REAL STORY OF CURIOSITY HERE is that some of these once-isolated male penguins actually formed NEW PAIR BONDS with the newly introduced females and successfully reproduced.
However, those males who did not were doing the "normal" thing as to the pair bonding behavior, and remained with their "mate" as most penguins do for their lifetimes. Even unsuccessful bonding...they just stay with whoever they bonded with, whatever happens.
Since those never knew females, they bonded with whoever was available to them, and in the case of this isolated population, it's the PAIR BONDING that is relevant, not that they pair bonded with other males who were their only options.
Pair bonding for avians is not about SEX, it's about REPRODUCTION AND REARING THE YOUNG. Birds require a partner to share the heavy and intense work load involved, particularly with penguins who have adapted to such extreme conditions of survival. It would be a waste of their time and resources, quite literally, be life threatening, for penguins to devote any more time than is necessary to pair bonding, and thus, once established, they remain with the selection, whatever happens.
I still find the marvelous, noteworthy thing here in this population to be that some of these penguins actually pair bonded twice (second time with the newly introduced females). THAT'S the "news event" of this story but you'd never know it from the MSM.
"Idiots. There are no gay penguins. Gosh, german zoos suck.'"
True. Very true.
A gay penquin is an EXTINCT penquin.
Especially when there is beer and football involved.
Thanks, that was well written, and I didn't know that about penguins!
Penguins mate for life? That doesn't surprise me much because they all look alike. It's not like they're going to meet a really new, great looking penguin
Linux never stood a chance against Bill.
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