"Gay penguins adopt an egg, prepare for parenthood" read the headline.
I'm guessing they're not talking happy penguins adopting an egg; but more along the lines of birds in the business of homosexuality adopting an egg.
Not that any of this matters really because as far as I have been concerned penguins are asexual - I mean a quick bodily glance at one shows no bodily differences. No breasts. No external sexual reproductive organs. Nada. Their sexuality can only be established via DNA tests.
"Gay Penguins!?" one would ask and thereafter attempt to conclude that these birds must be from San Francisco, Amsterdam or Cape Town, but upon further reading it came to bare that they're actually from my hometown, East London.
I can just picture the two penguins setting up nest together and deciding to keep it strictly male. I'm now left wondering how exactly one establishes that a penguin is gay? Is it because it shacks up with a same sex partner? Well according to the Daily Dispatch:
"Molly and Guido became a couple back in February last year and set up a nest together. Aquarium staff were, however, puzzled that no egg followed the pairing. Blood samples were taken and sent to a veterinary laboratory, and it was found that Molly and Guido were in fact both males."
I take it paring implies mating. I'd hate to be the zoo staff member who paired these penguins and later found out they were both males. Or perhaps it was intentional and not a matter of choice or fate.
Questionable
Earlier this month a German zoo had a similar incident where two male penguins, Z and Vielpunkt, "gladly" adopted a chick. This two are said to be part of a six-strong gay community among the zoo's penguins.
"Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals," said a zoo representative. This German zoo is the very same zoo that imported four female penguins from Sweden’s Bremerhaven Zoo to "cure" or make their current penguin populi go straight.
All this anthropomorphosis is questionable. Trying to humanise animals is one thing, trying to appropriate human behaviour and labels on to animals is another separate case.
Perhaps there is nothing out of the ordinary in this behaviour for animals and it is possibly a natural means for them to curb their population numbers - by becoming "homosexual" so to speak.
As far as I am concerned penguins will never be human and as such we should not expect them to behave humanly. If anything we are being discriminatory towards the poor birds.
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