Who knew? Wonder if this is true with humans.
A pair of gay penguins thrown out of their zoo colony for repeatedly stealing eggs have been given some of their own to look after following a protest by animal rights groups.
Last month the birds were segregated after they were caught placing stones at the feet of parents before waddling away with their eggs.
But angry visitors to Polar Land in Harbin, northern China, complained it wasn’t fair to stop the couple from becoming surrogate fathers and urged zoo bosses to give them a chance.
[...]
‘We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,’ said one of the keepers.
[...]
‘It wasn’t fair to stop them becoming parents and keep them apart from all the other birds just because of the way nature has made them.’
#18 Paddy-O, brood parasitism is an excellent example of deceptive behavior in animals, but it still may fall short of the mark set by these penguins. First of all, let me disclose my complete lack of biology and animal behavior credentials. Even so, brood parasitism seems to be common and well-known in certain species, which indicates instinctive and/or learned components. These penguins seem to have taken everyone by surprise with their “outside the box” behavior (I’m tempted to say thinking) amongst penguins, substituting a rock for a stolen egg.
I guess the question is, are these crafty little individuals inventing new behavior, or is this a newly-discovered characteristic of the species?
I’m still waiting to see if there are any good linux jokes to be made (can’t think of any myself)
Great! Let’s pass a law to give gay people the right to steal children.
#8 Because it was the Penguin’s Social Services that deemed the parents unfit. In the 30′s thru the 70′s we gave animals human features in cartoons to amuse ourselves. Now, those that grew up watching those cartoons are giving humans animal features because it’s OK for them. How much confusion in this world.
#10 Yeap, they were planned kidnappings.
pedro, we’re talking about homosexuality and you’re hyperventilating again. You know who does that? Closet cases who can’t accept their own homosexuality. Just sayin’… maybe a little introspection is in order.
Way to go Pedro
You might have something there.
#11
March of The Empresses?
Cursor_
#23 I think you’re the one hyperventilating here. Can’t stand the comparison, I see.
Gay??? … How do penguins butt-f**k?
That should be the new subtitle of this blog.
#27 Hate to say it but…good one!
Again bloggers are getting agitated whenever a positive gay story pops up and are missing the whole point by getting lost in the semantics.
The point is that same sex parenthood occurs in nature and is therefore not ‘unnatural’, by definition. Wether penguins make good parents or not is an entirely subjective value judgment designed to add positive spin to the argument.
#29
Agreed, there’s always a couple of trolls (and a self hating latino) that spend the whole time throwing stones.
Christians could use homosexuality to defy Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by simply doing this question: If gay animals don’t have offspring how come there’s always a fixed percentage of occurence in the natural world?
#29 So, kidnapping is just semantics for you.
Let’s try an approach given by someone here to support this and apply it to something else.
Let people get into other people’s houses and see what they think is being missused by them. Then, let them take it away from the owners because they can better use it.
#30 Diseases have normal, constant occurrances in nature.
#17 – Kemo Sabe
>>Gay??? … How do penguins butt-f**k?
Haw haw haw! Wait until you tell that one to the kids in the tree fort! That’s a real keen joke!!
Hey, good drinking buddies can raise children too, you know.
Anyway, nothing a hot babe can’t fix as was the case with Silo, the inspiration for one of the penguin’s in the illustration above.
“Silo promptly moved in with Scrappy, building a new nest with her. Zookeepers were at a loss to explain Silo’s sudden conversion.”
http://tinyurl.com/arusn
Anne Heche can relate.
RBG
#31 I suspect a penguin may have sneaked in during the night and replaced your brain with a rock.
The morality of baby snatching penguins is not the issue here. You cant reasonably apply human values to penguins. Besides, the same evil baby snatchers will often adopt orphan chicks and care for abandoned eggs (I saw it on TV – it must be true). The issue is that in nature, same sex parents are not uncommon and do a perfectly adequate job of it. I don’t see why humans are any different in that regard.
There is no good or evil in nature. These are subjective human constructs that have been hijacked by organized religion for their own (often nefarious) purposes.
I guess it would be different if they were stealing the eggs and trying to stick them up each others asses.
#38 – SpEd
>>I guess it would be different if they were
>>stealing the eggs and trying to stick them up
>>each others asses.
Haw haw haw! Wait until you tell that one to the kids in the tree fort! That’s a real keen joke!!
#34 In other words, don’t follow regular logic, only use the parts that suit my agenda. Kinda like fairy tales.
Is that what you want to say?
#37 Pedro
I said nothing about logic, although I believe my argument logical. I’m talking about human values and morality not being applicable to a penguins behavior.
An example of an illogical argument designed to suit ones agenda would be equating ‘gayness’ in penguins to a disease, even though there is no precedent or evidence of any biological problems in the animals.
#38 – Hugh Ripper
>>An example of an illogical argument designed
>>to suit ones agenda would be equating
>>‘gayness’ in penguins to a disease,
Well, you know what they say about those who criticize the most vociferously…
Besides, ‘dro knows they don’t cotton to that kind of stuff in Kuzconia, so he’s got to be extra careful.
Pedro, I suspect that if you were a judge in the animal kingdom, you’d quickly get a reputation as the hangin’ judge! You seem to be pretty harsh when assessing the guilt of those critters for their moral shortcomings.
Your Honor, I ask for leniency as this is my clients’ first offense. They’ve already confessed to stealing eggs. Please be merciful.