Gay Penguins Rear a Chick

Emperor penguins with their chicks. Credit: British Antarctic Survey

A zoo in Bremerhaven, Germany ruffled some feathers a while back when it flew in some female penguins to test the sexual orientation of three pairs of males that officials said had homosexual traits. The males had tried to mate with each other, and they were trying to "hatch offspring from stones," as the BBC put it.

As with penguins in general, the matchmaking never flew.

Recently one pair of the males, named Z and Vielpunkt, were given an egg that was rejected by the biological penguin parents. Apparently it worked out. The hatched chick is doing well, and the fathers are both happier, the zoo said in a statement. All that in a suit and tie! 

(Update 6/5 courtesy Dave Brody: Some readers might recall Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins who were a couple for six years at New York's Central Park Zoo, and the 2005 children's book about them, "And Tango Makes Three.")

To anyone familiar with sex in the animal kingdom, the tale of Z and Vielpunkt won't come as much of a surprise.

Many animals are known to enjoy sex. And the sexual behavior is not limited to mere mating.

Promiscuous, swinging sex is common in the animal kingdom. Bonobo mothers will get down with their sons, or just about any bonobo. In the polygamous society of walruses, a male defends a large harem of females. Copulation occurs underwater.

Homosexual behavior has been observed in hundreds of species, which scientists say is evidence that sexual preference is predetermined. Among bonobos — the closest relatives of humans — the females are particularly active.

Now here's a strange one:

Last year a seal was caught trying to have sex with a penguin, the first known example of such an effort between a mammal (seals are mammals) and another kind of vertebrate (penguins are birds).

Robert Roy Britt is the Editorial Director of Imaginova. In this column, The Water Cooler, he looks at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond.