‘Gay’ penguins Buddy and Pedro got their fair share of attention last month when zookeepers at the Toronto Zoo separated the two lovebirds for mating season. Despite the protest to keep the two penguins together, both Buddy and Pedro are taking a liking to their new female partners, the zoo said in a statement to the Toronto Star.
Buddy paired with a female named Farai on Nov. 19. He immediately exhibited typical breeding behavior with his new female partner. Pedro was set up with several female penguins, but has not yet found a suitable mate.
Buddy and Pedro were longtime partners before they were separated for mating season. Zookeepers saw the two exhibited courtship behaviors to one another which ordinarily is seen among male-female penguin relationships.
“When you put things in captivity, odd things happen,” Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y., told ABCNews.com. “The way penguins work is they do get paired for a long time. Basically, the only other penguin they care about is their mate, so it’s important for them to find somebody who’s compatible, and if you don’t have a normal upbringing then it’s difficult to say how ‘normal’ they can be.”
Buddy, 21, and Pedro, 10, were raised in captivity since birth.
The zoo has not announced whether or not they will reunite the pair after mating season.
