Yup. Penguins are dirty birds. They’re so bad that when their actions were recorded by early explorers, the findings were hidden from the public – to shield mankind from animal indecency. Even the explorer who journalized his findings was so uncomfortable with the topics that he encoded them in Greek! The only people who knew about these discoveries were a few selected scientists.

Fortunately, we live in the 21st century, so when someone goes through a box of old files and stumbles across a headline that says ‘the sexual habits of the adelie penguin, not for publication’ in large black type, we sit up and notice. Now the truth is out. Even in the Edwardian-era there were homosexuals, recreational sex, and sexual coercion amongst penguins. Apparently they beat their chicks on occasion and participated in necrophilia.

I found it amusing that the man who discovered this paper commented about the explorer who recorded the acts that he ‘falls into the trap in seeing penguins as bipedal birds and seeing them as little people. They’re not.’ Uh . . . sounds like people to me – not all people of course, but certainly a few come to mind who participate in some of these acts. Sure, not all people do these things as I’m sure not all penguins do either. Maybe the real problem is failing to see our own vices. Or perhaps it’s the inability to recognize the animal in ourselves.

So the gay penguins who were raising chicks (and it turns out there were a few different zoos that had gay penguins) was really nothing new. Some scientists still insist that the behavior was only because there weren’t enough females around, since some of the homosexual pairs broke up when more females were introduced. Maybe those penguins where gay for convenience, but I’m sure there are penguins that are gay because that’s how they swing. We’ll never really know until we can get inside a penguin’s mind. But I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s very little difference from us.

With another record of a species having sex for pleasure, if anyone feeds you that malarkey about only dolphins having sex for fun, there is something new to link them to. Animals like sex. If anyone has ever looked out their window and seen a pair of cats, dogs, squirrels, birds, foxes, etc going at it, you know that animals can get busy any time any place. Sex is fun! And even animals know it.

Not only do animals have sex for fun, but they also have sex outside their species. Most records are of mammals with mammals, birds with birds, etc, but if one poor penguin’s raped-by-seal story is anything to go on, animals will take it wherever they can get it. Even the scientists who witnessed this event didn’t believe it when they saw it. They thought the seal was eating the penguin. Because all seals eat penguins with their penis – right? *rolls eyes*

Perhaps we furries are ahead of our time? o.O