Penguins

Just recently, Ting posted on fb an article saying that "penguins mate with many different partners for the sake of getting stones to build their nests". I was appalled by this article as I have always been told that penguins r the best lovers of all livings. I was always in the mode of envy towards these particular flightless birds as many stories claim that once these penguins found their partner, they stay true even when the other are dead.

Because of this directly opposite way of claims towards penguins love/mating behaviour, I became very interested to find out the truth. This is beacause it's like since young we were taught that 1+1=2, and now because of some gifted mathematician, he/she founds out that 1+1=3 and expects the world to take in this theory. So hmm... and here's what I found after reading quite an amt of articles.
Interesting facts:
1) Female penguins prefer fat males
- the fat male penguins are differentiated by their calls during courtship
- the fat layer around the male vocal cords affects the way they sound.
- hence even when most male penguins try to pretend that they're fat by fluffing up their feathers or more, they will still be discovered by the females that they're lying once they make calls.
- the reason the females choose fatter male counterparts is because when the males are hatching on the eggs, the female will leave to feed itself. (both parties take turn to incubate the egg.)
- however this may take as long as 2 weeks, hence the male who's incubating the egg may be stuffed for this period of time. Hence, as the longer the period that the male is stuffing, his fat layer decreases, which means he will be colder(since most live in cold southern areas) and until a point he gives up, he will leave the egg to source for food.
- therefore it's impt for the female to choose a healthy conditioned male penguin.
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/News-Events/News/Female-penguins-prefer-fat-mates
[This seems to apply on humans arena too. Since who REALLY wants to live with a poor man who can't fend for himself, or a unhealthy man who has all sorts of illnesses. Vice-versa. But fatness wise, I guess it's only comfortable at the shoulder area - personal opinion.]


2) Gay penguins do exist; and gay dads are the best parents in the whole zoo.
- gay penguins will mate like any gay partners.
- they will hatch the eggs that they get on hands(their flippers!) as if their own. They may steal the eggs from other penguins couples, or they may take the eggs that were discarded by their biological parents.
- gay dads penguins are seen as the best parents many times in different zoos.
- the penguins are born gay, not to their choices.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/06/gay-penguin-dads-in-german-zoo-hatch-chick.html

[ like human, penguins r born this way. As commented by a guy “I am gay and I do not choose to be gay. That right there is proof. Why would I lie. I DID NOT CHOOSE TO BE GAY! Millions of gay people that say "I was born this way" are NOT LYING. That's all the proof anyone needs.” - Posted by: BMCM]


3) Rocks are used to build nest, this is a wrong perception.
-  “While true they do use rocks to build nest the rock they were referring to was put in the center of the nest and turned regular basics. THIS IS THE ACTION OF CARING FOR AN EGG.. AFTER THE NEST IS BUILT...” - Posted by: Deborah Gallagher


4) When a group of penguins(usually young) huddled together for warmth, called crèche, the penguin parents could not identify their own babies.
- it is only when the parents arries with food and squawks loudly, the chick runs to their parents upon recognition.
- Sometimes other hungry chicks comes too, but the parents will then recognise their chicks by their persistence.[survival of the fittess]
- Survival of the fittess also implies on who stays on the outside of the crèche.
http://www.pitara.com/discover/5wh/online.asp?story=33



Very sadly, I still didn't found out which claims are true (if penguins stays true to each other or they actually mates a lot with other parties) since both repeatedly exists on webbies. So if there's anyone who could enlight me on this issue, pls do so... it'll be a great help to me.


Last of all, a comment to end of this post.


“I'm gay and I think it was wrong not to try to get them to mate with females. Bisexuality exists across as many species as homosexuality does; if there was a chance they could produce offspring isn't it worth it to sustain their species? It's not like the human race which could certainly use less mating individuals. These penguins need help to reach sustainable numbers!
Users "Human" and "dotherightthing" should read up more on animal intelligence and emotion. He/she would be very surprised at what the scientific research and tests show. Humans aren't the only animals that laugh, love, reason, fight, cheat, steal, protect, build, fear, grieve, feel guilty, and dream...
recent studies[2009] show even *mice* laugh when playing with each other or get tickled! At one time laughter was thought to be the only complete difference between man and other animals- now we know lots of animals laugh. And we know lots of animals are homosexual throughout their lives. The only thing that seems to separate humans from the rest is our extremely high intelligence. Unfortunately, our ignorance is apparently on par though. " - Posted by: Jim
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090616/sc_livescience/samesexbehaviorfoundinnearlyallanimals