Freedom of Love or Buddy & Pedro (Gay Penguins)

[fords8]

These poor gay penguins are in love, but being separated.



Buddy and Pedro, two African penguins at the Toronto Zoo, are inseparable and show signs of same-sex mating behaviors. But the zoo plans to break the pair apart soon, according to a report in The Toronto Star.
That's because the two males were intended for a breeding program, which could help strengthen their species in captivity. Buddy and Pedro are said to have quality genes that would pass on to any offspring they might father.
SCIENCE CHANNEL VIDEO: An Evolutionary Joke
Gay male penguin couples appear to be fairly common. The Central Park Zoo has turned out to be the Castro of the penguin world, with several homosexual pairs observed there. Perhaps the most famous couple is Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins who incubated an egg and together raised the hatched chick, named Tango. A children's book, And Tango Makes Three, chronicles this event from about six years ago.
Gay penguins have also been noted at SeaWorld Orlando and zoos in Japan and Germany. Homosexuality in general has been documented in at least 1,500 species.
PHOTOS: FIVE FANTASTIC ANIMAL FATHERS
As a SheWired story points out, "gay" or "homosexual" isn't usually the term used by animal keepers. In zoo speak, it's called "pair bonding." Buddy and Pedro apparently forged their connection in Toledo, Ohio, where they were members of a bachelor flock. It's a May-December pairing too, as Buddy is 20 years old and Pedro is 10.
According to the Toronto Star report, the two penguins emit mating calls to each other, which make them sound like braying donkeys. They also swim and frolic together, regularly groom each other, and pair off together every night.
“It’s a complicated issue, but they seem to be in a loving relationship of some sort," Joe Torzsok, chair of the Toronto Zoo board, was quoted as saying in the news story.
NEWS: PENGUIN POPULATIONS IN FREEFALL

So what should win out -- the established penguin pairing or the zoo's need for breeding? So far, the latter appears to be Buddy and Pedro's fate.
African penguins, native to South Africa, have experienced significant population drops in recent years due to pollution, the encroachment of commercial fisheries on their food supply in the wild, and other mostly human-caused problems. At present, the species' numbers are dropping by 2 percent a year, with only 224,000 or so known to exist in the world.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/same-sex-penguins-separated-111107.html

____________________________________________________________

Awww I feel so sad for the lil guys. out: It's not bad enough that they're "jailed" for our entertainment, but now the only happiness they have is being taken away!!! :ranting:

 

[Peacock76]

Poor guys! I wonder if they will even be inclined to breed with female penguins? It'd be kind of sad if they take them away from each other & then they don't even end up having any offspring.

 

[skincarekathy]

This makes me sad. It is my understanding that penguins pair bond for life and prefer not to live if they are without their mate. Would be a criminal pity if that were done.

I don't know why they don't just extract & inseminate. It must work the same as mammals, right? I never got high-tech with chickens when I was little, I just knew if there was a rooster around there would be baby chicks. Much later I learned there was sort of a "community" rooster, neighbors would pass him around when they wanted fertilized eggs instead of unfertilized.

 

[debate]

‘Gay’ penguins Buddy and Pedro turn attention to the ladies

Buddy and Pedro fighting each other?

We know a lot of passionate relationships can end badly — but this fast? Guys, say it ain't so!

The loveable same-sex pair of endangered African penguins at the Toronto Zoo, the ones with the international profile and the high-octane genes, have been separated from each other by their handlers and paired up with females as part of a species survival program.

Buddy, 21, was paired with Farai, 3, on Nov. 19 and breeding activity was observed, the zoo said Monday. Pedro, 10, was introduced to females on Dec. 1 and has been seen “constantly” courting them, including Thandiwey, the one the zoo wants him to mate with. But no solid bonding has yet happened.

Easy come, easy go, apparently.

Scientists say that when a female shows up, that often spells the end for same-sex male bonds in penguins and other animals. And vice versa for same-sex female pairings. (However, that theory doesn't explain why Buddy and Pedro stuck together so closely and for so long in the mixed flock of 12 African penguins at the zoo.)

Buddy and Pedro and their mates, along with Puff, 17, and Gozi, 3, a third couple in the breeding program, have been placed in the zoo's penguin house. The couples each have a nest spot consisting of a box lined with gravel and sterile, flexible tubing that can be used as twigs.

But fans worldwide who have been riveted by Buddy and Pedro's story will be saddened to hear the two recently got into a fight as they sat across from one another in their respective nests. It was mostly loud bawling, but there could have been serious injuries if not for a mesh between the nests.

“It's a common male trait. They set territory around a nest,'' Tom Mason, curator of birds and invertebrates at the zoo, told reporters at a Monday news conference held to provide an update on Buddy and Pedro and the mating program.

For African penguins, laying eggs can take anywhere from a few days to one month after the female has ovulated. The zoo hopes to see some eggs between now and next March, with chicks arriving as early as the end of January.

Typically, one egg is laid, with male and females sharing joint responsibility for incubation. Zookeepers will step in and assist with feeding the chicks three to seven weeks after hatching.

The Toronto Zoo is one of 40 participating in a multi-year breeding program for the endangered species native to South Africa.

Buddy and Pedro's bromance has made them social darlings and worldwide newsmakers since their relationship was first reported in the Star last month.

Up to now, Buddy and Pedro had shown little amorous interest in the young females in the flock, preferring to huddle for hours on end beside a wooden post in their enclosure.

The tale of the star-crossed couple sparked a mention in a Jimmy Kimmel monologue, as well a http://www.change.org/petitions/tor...ns-to-breed-them-with-opposite-sexpetitionEND with 891 signatures and a handful of much “liked” Facebook groups with titles like http://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-Buddy-and-Pedro-Together/237926819601578”Keep Buddy and Pedro together.”END

According to Twitter feeds purportedly written by the flightless buddies, the duo recently ditched the girls for a night on the town. Wrote “Buddy”: “Hope the girls aren't too worried. Never told them about the zoobreak. It was for their own safety.” “Pedro” lamented their separation with a tweet: “We're common-law. Trouble is we're in these separate cells now. It's not the document we need, just more together time.”

The tuxedo-clad birds are not the only animals to occasionally exhibit same-sex bonds — giraffes, dolphins and some monkeys have been observed doing the same. Other same-sex penguin couples have also been documented at the Central Park Zoo and in Germany.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article...y-and-pedro-turn-attention-to-the-ladies?bn=1

 

[fords8]

So you CAN turn gay into straight! :lol: