Thursday, February 8, 2007

Love blossoms for zoo male penguin pair

Harry and Pepper could be the poster boys for the phrase "opposites attract." Harry is a social butterfly and loves attention. Pepper, on the other hand, prefers to be left alone.

The two do share a love of swimming and eating fish, mostly herring and capelin. For two years the 5-year-old Magellanic penguins have been lovebirds, attached at the wing, at the San Francisco Zoo.

"They are a strongly bonded pair of birds," said zookeeper Anthony Brown. "They are monogamous. There hasn't been any exploring."

As the zoo and its animals get ready to celebrate Valentine's Day – for the penguins it is the start of breeding season – the male penguin pair is the sole same-gender couple struck by Cupid's arrow among the zoo's colony of 53 birds.

No comments: