Image Gallery: Sex Habits of Penguins

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Gay Penguins

An Adelie penguin couple in a photo taken by George Levick, a surgeon and zoologist aboard Captain Scott's 1910 South Pole expedition.

(Image credit: copyright Natural History Museum)

An Adelie penguin couple in a photo taken by George Levick, a surgeon and zoologist aboard Captain Scott's 1910 South Pole expedition.

Cape Adare

A group of Adelie penguins on Cape Adare in a photo taken by Levick. Cape Adare holds the world's largest Adelie penguin colony.

(Image credit: copyright Natural History Museum)

A group of Adelie penguins on Cape Adare in a photo taken by Levick. Cape Adare holds the world's largest Adelie penguin colony.

Icy Penguins

Some of the penguin sexual acts observed by Levick, such as necrophilia and what Levick considered "rape," or sexual coercion, shocked and repulsed the zoologist.

(Image credit: copyright Natural History Museum)

Some of the penguin sexual acts observed by Levick, such as necrophilia and what Levick considered "rape," or sexual coercion, shocked and repulsed the zoologist.

The Notebook

George Levick's notes on the gay sex acts of Adelie penguins.

(Image credit: copyright NHM/R Kossow)

Levick kept his notes on the penguins in two separate notebooks, one of which was for the "depraved" sexual acts he observed. The notebook, some coded in Greek, is being displayed until Sept. 2, 2012 at the Natural History Museum's exhibition "Scott's Last Expedition."

All Lined Up

Another page of Levick's notebook showing the Adelie penguins of Cape Adare.

(Image credit: copyright NHM/R Kossow)

Another page of Levick's notebook showing the Adelie penguins of Cape Adare.

On Ice

Adélie Penguins on the ice-foot at Cape Adare in the Antarctic, shown here in a photo taken by George Murray Levick, a member of Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition.

(Image credit: Public Domain)

Adélie Penguins on the ice-foot at Cape Adare in the Antarctic, shown here in a photo taken by George Murray Levick, a member of Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition.

Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.