Girl Penguin Breaks up Chick Raising Male Penguin Couple

by 158 | July 13, 2009 at 08:33 am

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Two male penguins named Harry and Pepper have been together for six years, acting in all ways as a nesting couple. When a penguin male/female couple would not care for their egg Pepper and Harry were allowed to adopt the egg. They showed they were good parents as they carefully tended to the egg and the baby chick. The zoo said they were among the best penguin parents that year, they took very good care of the chick. Then they were given another egg to hatch the next year.

The happy couple seemed settled, happy, ready to raise more chicks. But then Linda, a recently widowed girl penguin invited Harry to the burrow she had shared with her deceased mate. Linda wanted to be more than friends and she had decided single life was not good and she planned to convince Harry to move in.

Now Harry and Linda are an item in the zoo’s penguin social scene. They are nesting together, for the past several months. Meanwhile Pepper is alone. He has not expressed an opinion on the new couple nor has he tried to win Harry back. There have been no fights between the two and none of the other penguins have marched with signs for or against gay penguin couples.

The Chief zookeeper will decide who gets the children.

A romantic triangle has led to hurt feelings and a nasty breakup at the San Francisco Zoo.

Its same-sex penguin couple, Harry and Pepper, has split -- over a female, according to CBS station KPIX-TV in the City by the Bay.

The two had been together for six years. They nested together and incubated an egg laid by another penguin.

Zookeepers say, earlier this year, a female penguin named Linda became friends
with Harry, after Linda's longtime companion died. That didn't go over well
with Pepper, and led to a violent confrontation between Pepper and Harry.

Zoo officials kept the three penguins separated until recently.

They say Harry and Linda are now a happy couple and have successfully nested this year.

Maybe not so peaceful after all.

Maybe Harry is actually bi?

He's dropped Pepper for Linda (pictured here with Harry), a widowed penguin known for quickly shacking up with new mates after ditching partners. And, evidently, getting her new men to attack their gay ex-lovers.

Enter the recently widowed Linda, who has long had a reputation of sorts, according to Brown.

Several years ago, she left her longtime companion and moved in with much older Fig just hours after Fig’s partner passed away, Brown said.

“That was the fastest we’d ever seen penguins move on,” he said. “To be completely anthropomorphizing, Linda seems conniving. She’s got her plan. I don’t think she was wanting to be a single girl for too long.”

This year, within weeks of Fig passing away in winter, Harry was seen in Fig’s old burrow spending time with Linda, Brown said.

Then one day, Harry and Linda approached Pepper’s pen and confronted Pepper. Harry began attacking Pepper violently and the three ultimately had to be separated, Brown said.

Harry and Linda successfully nested this year and eventually Pepper was returned to the penguin exhibit from a bachelor pad.