- on penguins -

The animal kingdom's most famous gay couple has split up.[>story]

Silo and Roy, the cohabiting penguins of Central Park Zoo, are no longer an item.

Just like any other celebrity couple, it all ends in demystifying sadness. Now Roy is left staring at a wall.

It all started a while ago when Silo and Roy came out as a couple. To quote a quote from the New York Times:

"Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, are completely devoted to each other. For nearly six years now, they have been inseparable. They exhibit what in penguin parlance is called "ecstatic behavior": that is, they entwine their necks, they vocalize to each other, they have sex. Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the females aren't interested in them, either."

When zookeepers noticed this, they gave them an egg from another mother who had no bird to care for it. Roy and Silo both took turns to sit on it until miraculously they hatched a bird. There was even a children's picture book based on this called "and Tango makes three."

Gay groups argued that if homosexual behaviour occurred in animals such as Roy and Silo, it was natural, and therefore the rights of homosexuals should be protected.

That all ended recently when Scrappy, a single female, newly arrived from California, caught Silo's eye. He started spending less time with Roy and stopped building a nest with him. Instead Silo promptly moved in with Scrappy and built a nest of their own.

This sent my our eyeballs rolling very fluidly.

---

Ever wondered how far a penguin can fire poop from its anus?
Me neither. This scientific investigation, along with many others just as pointless, was one of the many that were celebrated at the recent Ig Nobel Prizes at Harvard University. [>report]

---

A few years ago, the operators of an Australian penguin parade decided to build huge glassed-in viewing boxes along the route to give tourists a better view of the animals' daily ritual.

The penguins, curious creatures by nature, watched the costly building of these boxes, then suddenly changed their parade route, which made the new viewing areas obsolete. [>story]

---

"From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought." --Victor Hugo

What animal(s) are you?