Toronto Zoo Plans On Splitting Up Gay Penguin Couple !!

This is soooo not cool!!  I have a very serious problem with the zoo doing this and the message that it is sending.  The zookeepers at the Toronto zoo are planning on splitting up Pedro and Buddy, a bonded gay penguin couple and forcing them to mate with female penguins even though the two follow mating rituals and pair up every night, the Toronto Star reports;

They have top-notch genes, so the zoo intends to separate them from each other and pair them with females for breeding. Given that African penguins are endangered, the move falls within a species survival plan among zoos.

Buddy, 20, and Pedro, 10, are in Toronto as part of the popular African penguin exhibit that opened at the zoo in May. The two, bred in captivity, were part of a group of 12 penguins — six male, six female — that came to Toronto from zoos in the U.S. Buddy and Pedro arrived from Toledo, Ohio, where they formed a connection as members of a bachelor flock.

“They do courtship and mating behaviours that females and males would do,’’ one keeper said in an interview.

Those behaviours include making a “braying’’ sound, almost like a donkey, as a mating call. They defend their territory, preen each other, and are constantly standing alone together. In fact when the Star visited the exhibit this week Buddy emerged from the water, followed a few moments later by Pedro. The two huddled together for quite some time..

I am going to try to find more information as to what can be done to keep this from happening and any additional updates will be posted on the blog. We need to save Pedro and Buddy!!!




via towleroad