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Gay News: A new study has concluded that apparently gay King penguins are not gay, just lonely
By: Nigel Robinson
Not gay - just flirting
Not gay - just flirting
Penguins aren't gay - they're just flirts
21 October 2010
“Gay” penguins are not unusual in zoos, where two members of the same sex will often pair off and tend to eggs like a heterosexual couple.
Now evidence has been found of same-sex pairs of King penguins in the wild.
Research by the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier has found that more than a quarter of penguins in a colony in the Antarctic were in same-sex relationships.
However, they concluded that the male penguins were only pairing off with each other because they were lonely.
The low number of female penguins in the colony, coupled with the males’ high levels of testosterone, encouraged them to engage in mating displays and same-sex flirting with other males.
During the mating season, penguins flirt with potential partners by closing their eyes, stretching their heads skywards and moving them in a semi-circle to take pecks at each other.
However the males did not bond in the same way as a heterosexual pair would, by caring for eggs and learning each other’s calls.
Professor F. Stephen Dobson, one of the authors of the report, which has been published in the journal Ethology, said that the number of same-sex pairs bonding was actually lower than expected.
Over a quarter of the birds in the colony were in same-sex pairs but only two pairs bonded by learning each other’s calls.
Even these two pairs were later seen caring for eggs in heterosexual pairs.
“I found that the rate of homosexuality displaying pairs was significantly lower than one would expect by chance, Professor Dobson said.
