Same-sex penguins couple up during nesting season at Melbourne aquarium

Jones and Klaus make up one of two same-sex male gentoo penguin couples who have partnered up Melbourne’s Sea Life aquarium
Sea Life Melbourne

Two male penguin couples have formed at a Melbourne aquarium as they go through their annual mating season.

The aquarium has announced the same-sex duos of Tiger and Branston and Jones and Klaus are among its latest gentoo penguin partnerships.

Mating rituals among penguins typically involve one – usually a male – gifting a pebble to a potential mate.

The pebbles are then used in building nests for any eggs that are laid.

Same-sex behaviour has been observed in more than 1,500 animal species, according to a 2019 study published in peer-reviewed online journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Lead bird keeper Tanith Davis said the aquarium often fostered eggs to male-male penguin pairs and same-sex couples were not unusual in penguins.

“Same-sex penguin pairs will court each other and incubate an egg exactly the same way as a male-female pair,” she told the AP.

“As male-male pairs can’t lay their own eggs, we will sometimes foster an egg to them from another pair.

“Sea Life Melbourne has had many same-sex couples in our breeding history, and they have been doting parents.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in