It’s World Penguin Day and what better way to celebrate our favorite waddling birds than by unearthing their deepest, darkest (slightly perverted) secrets…
Everyone loves cuddly, clumsy penguins. Especially dinky little Adélie penguins who are just 27.5 inches tall. Aww.
But when Dr George Murray Levick observed the penguins’ sexual behavior back in 1911, he was so shocked by what they got up to it was deemed too naughty to publish.
Apparently, penguins were engaging in wildly promiscuous sex between unpaired male and female penguins and there was plenty of homosexual couplings going on, too. You’re right, that doesn’t seem too outrageous.
But Dr George also saw the penguins engage in rape, gang rape, sexual and physical abuse of chicks and even necrophilia with penguins that had died up to a year before.
He was pretty shocked, blaming these penguin perversions on “hooligan males” and writing all his notes in Greek so only very educated gentlemen could read them. His observations were only published one hundred years later in 2012.
By which time his alarming studies were backed up by yet more penguin naughtiness as Adélie penguins were seen prostituting their females, with penguin sex workers even luring in males to steal their stones (we’re not making this up).
So, er, happy World Penguin Day!
