Published December 20, 2024
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This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack; Kathleen Barker; and Deb Fowler.
TRANSCRIPT
Deb Fowler: Hello, and welcome to UnErasing LGBTQ History and Identities: A Podcast. I’m Deb Fowler, co-founder of History UnErased.
Stories about penguins get more attention during the chill of winter, but they have a lot to teach us any time of the year. These fascinating birds are known for their unique behaviors and unbreakable bonds, but it is their same sex love stories - and roles as adoptive parents - that seem to capture hearts and minds worldwide.
In this episode, we’ll explore the science, stories, and symbolism behind these same-sex penguin pairings, and celebrate how the natural world is a mirror to the beautiful diversity of the human experience. Let’s waddle in….
Kathleen Barker: In the world of same-sex penguin couples, no one is as famous as Roy and Silo, the devoted penguin dads at New York City’s Central Park Zoo and the stars of the famously challenged book And Tango Makes Three. But did you know that there have been countless recordings of same-sex penguin couples, both in the wild and in zoos and animal sanctuaries around the world? From Sphen and Magic, the gentoo fathers in Sydney, to two king penguins named Thelma and Louise from New Zealand, to Electra and Viola, and Harry and Pepper, and Ronnie and Reggie, and all of the wild penguins that have no names, there is just no end to penguin love…. Same sex penguin stories abound!
Our story begins in the 1520s with Antonio Pigafetta, a member of Ferdinand Magellan’s epic expedition to circumnavigate the globe. While sailing along the coast of what is now called South America, Pigafetta captured some of the earliest written descriptions of penguins in his journal. Pigafetta described these birds as similar to geese but incapable of flight. He remarked on their exceptional swimming ability and their distinctive black-and-white coloring, which is typical of penguins. While he did not use the term "penguin" (as it likely emerged later), his account is considered one of the earliest European records of these creatures. Though he didn’t know it at the time, he was observing what would become known as Magellanic penguins. Imagine being a sailor in the 16th century, encountering these strange, black and white birds for the very first time.
Fast forward to the late 1600s, when English explorer William Dampier took note of penguins during his travels around the globe. Dampier was quite the adventurer – he was the first person known to circumnavigate the world three times! – and his descriptions of penguins’ behavior and physical traits in the Southern Hemisphere islands added more detail to Europeans’ growing awareness of these birds. In his account A New Voyage Round the World (published in 1697), Dampier wrote: "The Penguins are as big as a Duck, but they cannot fly, having only Stumps in the place of Wings, covered with a sort of Scale Feathers.”
The 18th and 19th centuries marked a turning point for penguin research, with Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster leading the way. These two accompanied Captain James Cook on his second voyage, which traversed the Southern Hemisphere from 1772 to 1775. Their mission? To systematically study and classify countless bird species, penguins included. Their meticulous documentation brought penguins into the realm of scientific study for the first time.
Then there’s the legendary Charles Darwin. During the voyage of the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, Darwin encountered penguins along the coast of Uruguay, as well as in the Falkland Islands, which are home to five of the world’s 17 penguin species. He noted the charming birds’ adaptations, behavior, and habitats. Here’s one example of Darwin’s encounter with a penguin in the Falklands:
Danny Roberts as Charles Darwin:“Another day, having placed myself between a penguin and the water, I was much amused by watching its habits. It was a brave bird; and til reaching the sea, it regularly fought and drove me backwards. Nothing less than heavy blows would have stopped him; every inch he gained he firmly kept, standing close before me erect and determined. When thus opposed he continually rolled his head from side to side, in a very odd manner…. This bird is commonly called the jackass penguin, from its habit, while on shore, of throwing its head backwards, and making a loud strange noise, very like the braying of an ass; but while at sea, and undisturbed, its note is very deep and solemn, and is often heard in the night-time…. When at sea and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose of breathing with such a spring, and dives again so instantaneously, that I defy any one at first sight to be sure that it was not a fish leaping for sport.”
KB: These observations of Magellanic Penguins fit snugly into Darwin’s broader theories of evolution and survival of the fittest.
We should also mention Jules Dumont d’Urville, the French explorer who studied Emperor and Adélie penguins during Antarctic expeditions in the late 1830s. He actually discovered the Adélie penguin, which he named after his wife. These missions expanded our knowledge of penguins in their extreme, icy environments.
Now let’s leap into the 20th century and meet George Murray Levick. A surgeon in the British Royal Navy, he was a true penguin pioneer. He joined Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition from 1910 to 1913, spending an Antarctic summer at Cape Adare. Levick’s detailed observations of Adélie penguins’ courtship, nesting, and social interactions laid the groundwork for modern penguin biology. But Levick’s research wasn’t without controversy and erasure. He observed behaviors that shocked his Victorian sensibilities: same-sex interactions, non-procreative sex, coercion, and even mating activities with dead penguins. In an attempt to keep these findings discreet, he wrote them in ancient Greek, ensuring only a select few could understand. Here are a few samples of what Levick recorded. In these excerpts, he refers to male penguins as “cocks,” and female penguins as “hens.”
Eric Fisher as George Murray Levick: “Here on one occasion I saw what I took to be a cock copulating with a hen. When he had finished, however, and got off, the apparent hen turned out to be a cock, and the act was again performed with their positions reversed, the original “hen” climbing on to the back of the original cock, whereupon the nature of their proceeding was disclosed.
As the season advanced, the number of unmated cocks increased to a great extent, … partly owing to the large number of homes now being broken up owing to accidental destruction of the eggs, depredations of Skuas, etc., and also in a large measure to the ravages of the Sea-leopards gathered in the sea in the vicinity of the rookery. These unmated cocks congregate in little “hooligan” bands of half a dozen or more, and hang about the outskirts of the knolls, whose inhabitants they annoy by their constant acts of depravity.
One day I was watching a hen painfully dragging herself across the rookery on her belly, using her flippers for propulsion as her legs trailed uselessly behind her. As I was just wondering whether I ought to kill her or not, a cock, seeing her pass, ran out from the outskirts of a neighbouring knoll and went up to her. After a short inspection he deliberately copulated with her, she being, of course, quite unable to resist him … There seems to be no crime too low for these Penguins.”
KB: Upon returning to Britain, Levick authored a paper in English titled Natural History of the Adélie Penguin, but the section addressing the penguins' sexual behaviors was considered so scandalous that it was omitted to maintain common decency! Later, he compiled the risque material into a separate paper called Sexual Habits of the Adélie Penguin, which he secretly shared with a select group of experts.
While some of his findings were suppressed at the time, they were rediscovered in 2012, and celebrated for their honesty and scientific rigor. Levick’s research took 100 years to come to light – in a natural world full of diversity, what other examples are hiding in plain sight, or buried in museums and archives waiting to be rediscovered and unerased?
Penguins have been a symbol of resilience and adaptability for centuries, but they’re also famous for their heartwarming relationships. Let’s take a closer look at some of the famous same-sex penguin couples who have captured hearts around the world.
We’ll begin with the iconic Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins from New York’s Central Park Zoo. In 1998, these two formed an unbreakable bond and even tried hatching a rock together! A New York Times article from February 7, 2004 described their connection this way:
Dinah Mack: “Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, are completely devoted to each other. For nearly six years now, they have been inseparable. They exhibit what in penguin parlance is called ''ecstatic behavior'': that is, they entwine their necks, they vocalize to each other, they have sex. Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the females aren't interested in them, either.”
KB: Seeing their dedication to each other and to caring for an egg, zookeepers replaced the rock with a fertile egg. And guess what? Roy and Silo successfully hatched and raised a chick named Tango, who grew up and paired off with another female penguin named Tazuni. Their story inspired the children’s book And Tango Makes Three. While it’s a beloved tale, it’s also faced controversy, landing on the American Library Association’s most challenged books list several times in its 20-year history. Although Roy and Silo broke up in 2005, their story reminds us of the power of love and family in all its forms.
Next up, we’re heading to Australia to meet Sphen and Magic, a pair of male gentoo penguins at the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium. In 2018, these two proved their parenting skills when zookeepers gave them a dummy egg. They cared for it so well that they were entrusted with a real fertilized egg, which they successfully hatched into a chick named Lana (also known as Sphengic by her adoring public). They raised another chick, Clancy, in 2020. Dubbed a “penguin power couple” by the media, inflatable versions of the duo appeared in the 2021 Sydney Pride parade, and the couple was even featured in the Netflix series Atypical. Sphen died in August 2024 just before his 12th birthday, but the story of this adorable penguin family speaks to the power of love–and penguins–to raise awareness of the need for greater equality among humans.
Now for some female penguin power! Thelma and Louise, two female king penguins living in Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand, formed a close bond and hatched an egg together. Incubating a King Penguin egg is serious business that requires a tight bond between the penguin pair. King penguins stand upright and hold the egg on the tops of their feet. Parents take turns incubating the egg for shifts that last 6–18 days, and the egg hatches after about 50–60 days. Thelma and Louise’s first bundle of joy hatched in February 2017, and the pair expanded their brood in 2019, taking in an egg after zookeepers realized that its biological parents, who were straight, weren’t up to the task. In order to give the chick the greatest chance to thrive, zookeepers gave the egg to Thelma and Louise one week before it was due to hatch. Adoptive parents for the win!
While same-sex penguin parents around the world have demonstrated love, care, and commitment, let’s revisit George Murray Levick’s century-old research for a moment. Remember those hooligan penguins he described? Well, in the fall of 2020, a pair of gay penguins at DierenPark zoo in Amersfoort, Netherlands stole an entire nest of eggs from a neighboring lesbian penguin couple. This couple was ready for parenthood, but rather than relying on zookeepers, these two chose a different option. This wasn’t even the first instance of this couple stealing eggs! They previously took an egg from another, heterosexual, penguin pair, when they weren’t paying attention. Sadly, neither egg hatched, and these very determined male penguins were left chick-less.
From the early explorers to modern scientists, each puzzle piece enhances our understanding of penguins as symbols of resilience and adaptability. They’ve survived for thousands of years in some of the harshest environments on Earth. Gender and sexual diversity in the animal kingdom reveals that nature thrives on variation, challenging rigid human constructs of gender and sexuality. Same-sex pair bonding in penguins highlight the flexibility and adaptability of life. Such examples encourage humans to embrace inclusivity, recognizing that diversity is a natural and valuable part of any thriving ecosystem. Famous penguin couples remind us that love, family, and connection come in all shapes, sizes, and forms. Contrary to early beliefs and research that contradicted or erased diversity in the animal kingdom, research comes to light daily demonstrating that animals of every species have been canoodling with partners of the same sex since the beginning of time.
DF: Kathleen Barker is History UnErased’s program director and is a library and information specialist and public historian with over 20 years of experience as a museum and library educator. This podcast is funded by the New York City Council. It was developed by History UnErased and produced and edited by Dinah Mack, our podcaster and youth equity program director.
Special thanks to our colleagues Eric Fisher, for reading the part of George Murray Levick, and Danny Roberts, for reading the part of Charles Darwin. And a special shout out to History UnErased’s new mascot, Georgie, the nine-week old French bulldog, who provided the penguin chirping sounds.
Our theme music is “1986” by BrothaD via Tribe of Noise. Please rate this podcast and share!
I’m Deb Fowler. Thanks for listening. Visit UnErased.org to learn how we are putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place - the classroom.
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