Harry & Pepper

Here's a heartwarming story* about true love. Harry and Pepper, residents of San Francisco, have been a devoted couple for 2 years.

Harry and Pepper both weigh eight and half pounds and stand about a foot and half tall. During feeding times the couple is the first to dine. Pepper has a preference for dining "al aqua" so his keepers have affixed a black leather armband to his wing so they can better monitor his feeding habits.

"He eats in the water so quickly it is hard to read his number," said Brown.

Pepper, tagged number 207, also has a "huge beak compared to his body size," said Brown. As for Harry, he prefers to eat on land and is recognizable by the large white spot at the base of his tail.

Harry, tagged number 201, loves to visit with the zoo's human guests. But he had trouble finding a home, or burrow, with the other penguins. He settled on a planter box close to the spot where the keepers feed the birds. His home was away from the colony and a short waddle away from the dinner table.

Not long after, Pepper moved in. Later on the couple moved to a nicer spot where they keep nest together. Last year during mating season they were given an extra egg to incubate. Zoo keepers said they made excellent surrogate parents.

According to the story, the penguins are far from the first same-sex couple known to zookeepers.

At the zoo, Harry and Pepper aren't the first same-sex Magellanic penguin pair. Tollini recalled there was another male pair – she has since forgotten their names – which also took great care of the nest in their burrow.

"I found a peacock feather in their burrow. It was very well appointed," she said.

There have been same-sex flamingo couples, gay lemur pairs, same-sex monkey couples, and canoodling between the zoo's former pairs of female Asian and African elephants.

"They did all sorts of things to each other with their trunks," said Tollini.

The article goes on to dispel a few more myths about same-sex couples, even among animals.
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*Matthew S. Bajko, "Love blossoms for zoo male penguin pair", Bay Area Reporter, 8 February 2007.

Posted on February 9, 2007 at 00.12 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Faaabulosity, The Art of Conversation

One Response

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Friday, 9 February 2007 at 03.33
    Permalink

    I'll be darned. This bolsters my strong belief diversity is nature's way.

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