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> Male Magellan penguins Harry and Pepper have been together since 2003. The pair nested together and even incubated an egg laid by another penguin in 2008, but their relationship hit the rocks earlier this year when a female penguin, Linda, befriended Harry after her long-time companion died. This did not go over well with Pepper, who became violent. The three penguins were separated for some time following the fight. >

Two "gay" male penguins have hatched a chick and are now rearing it as its adoptive parents, says a German zoo. The zoo, in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, says the adult males - Z and Vielpunkt - were given an egg which was rejected by its biological parents. It says the couple are now happily rearing the chick, said to have reached four weeks old. The zoo made headlines in 2005 over plans to "test" the sexual orientation of penguins with homosexual traits. Three pairs of male penguins had been seen attempting to mate with each other and trying to hatch...

A pair of gay penguins thrown out of their zoo colony for repeatedly stealing eggs have been given some of their own to look after following a protest by animal rights groups. Last month the birds were segregated after they were caught  placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs.But angry visitors to Polar Land in Harbin, northern China, complained it wasn't fair to stop the couple from becoming surrogate fathers and urged zoo bosses to give them a chance. In response, zookeepers gave the pair two eggs laid by an inexperienced first-time mother....

A couple of gay penguins are attempting to steal eggs from straight birds in an effort to become "fathers", it has been reported. The two penguins have started placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs, in a bid to hide their theft. But the deception has been noticed by other penguins at the zoo, who have ostracised the gay couple from their group. Now keepers have decided to segregate the pair of three-year-old male birds to avoid disrupting the rest of the community during the hatching season. A keeper at Polar Land in Harbin,...

At least five parakeets in the flock at Binnowee Landing, the San Francisco Zoo's new blockbuster exhibit, have tested positive for a disease that is highly contagious and often fatal to other members of the avian community -- including family pets -- according to an internal memo sent by the head veterinarian the day before the show opened. Bird lovers are worried and furious. The ailment, which cannot be transmitted to humans, is called psittacine beak and feather disease. The zoo knew about the problem before importing the creatures but decided to go ahead with the heavily promoted June 8...

SAVANNAH, Mo. -- A children's book about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin has been moved to the nonfiction section of two public library branches after parents complained it had homosexual undertones. The illustrated book, And Tango Makes Three, is based on a true story of two male penguins, named Roy and Silo, who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City's Central Park Zoo in the late 1990s. The book, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, was moved from the children's section at two Rolling Hills' Consolidated Library's branches in Savannah and St. Joseph in northwest Missouri....

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...

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 on Wednesday. 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.

New York City's most famous gay penguin couple has split up. Even worse, one of them has taken up with a female penguin new to the Central Park Zoo, the New York Post reports. Silo and Roy, two male chinstrap penguins native to the South Atlantic, made local headlines six years ago when they came out with their same-sex relationship. Since then, the pair have successfully hatched and raised an adopted chick — after trying to incubate a rock — and become role models for six other same-sex couples among penguins at the zoo. That all ended when Scrappy, a...

It's splitsville for New York's favorite gay penguins — and one of the lover-birds has taken up with a fetching female. Now, the Central Park Zoo is dealing with a gay-straight love triangle Jerry Springer couldn't dream up. And nobody knows who will lay claim to the pair's adopted chick. The drama started when Silo left Roy, his mate of six years, for Scrappy, a female transplant from SeaWorld who'd never had chicks. "Silo and Roy stopped spending as much time together or building a nest," said John Rowden, the zoo's curator of animals. At first, Silo started hanging out...

A German zoo has abandoned a plan to break up homosexual penguin couples after protests from gay rights groups. The Bremerhaven Zoo in northern Germany had earlier flown in four female Humboldt penguins in an attempt to encourage three all-male couples to reproduce. The zoo originally defended the experiment on the grounds that the birds were an endangered species. But after protests from gay rights groups, director Heike Kueck said the zoo was abandoning the plan. "Everyone can live here as they please," Ms Kueck said. She said it was not her intention, nor was it possible, to separate the...