Sydney Gay Penguins Celebrate Three Years Together
Image: Image: Sea Life Sydney
A gay penguin couple has celebrated their third anniversary at Sydney’s SEA LIFE Aquarium.
In November 2021 Sphen and Magic celebrated three years together with a frozen fish cake with their neighbours.
The Gentoo penguin dads hatched their first chick, Lara, in 2018, after patiently waiting for her to hatch and taking turns to incubate her for 68 days.
It all started when zookeepers noticed an opposite-sex penguin couple struggling to incubate two eggs, they took no time to transfer one of the eggs to the loving penguin dads.
In November 2020, they hatched their second egg, named Clancy by the zookeepers.
Sphen and Magic stay loyal to this day, beating several Hollywood power couples! According to news.com.au, they have now entered their fourth breeding season together.
‘Great Example to the Rest of the Colony’
SEA LIFE’s penguin keeper Kiera Ponting said that “Magic still regularly collects the most perfect pebble that he can find for Sphen, displaying what a great hunter and partner he can be.
“They set a great example to the rest of the colony. They’re inseparable and [are] proving just how strong penguin bonds can be. We’ve noticed many of the newer penguin couples setting up their nests close to Sphen and Magic, which we think is them trying to learn from the best.”
Sphen and Magic grew close in 2018 and became inseparable when the breeding season started. Organisers on SEA LIFE Sydney’s website explained how the adorable pair were constantly seen waddling around and going for swims in the Penguin Expedition together.
Sphen and Magic started collecting pebbles at the start of the breeding season. To date, they have gathered more pebbles than any other couple.
To ensure they were included in the breeding season, zookeepers initially gave Sphen and Magic a dummy egg to practise their incubating skills. They turned out to have excellent parenting skills and were given a real egg from the other couple that had two.
Sphen and Magic became famous after getting featured on the Netflix show Atypical.
