[Vision2020] German Zoo Fails to Make Gay Penguins Straight

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Expatica at:

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=27
472&name=German+zoo+fails+to+make+gay+penguins+straight

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German zoo fails to make gay penguins straight  
 
8 February 2006

BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY - Shy Swedish female penguins sent to seduce
"homosexual" male Humboldt penguins in a German zoo have failed to break up
any of the male-male twosomes, officials said Wednesday. 

Bremerhaven Zoo last year shrugged off attacks from gay-pride groups as far
away as the United States last year over its efforts to establish breeding
pairs in its penguin pens. 

The zoo has far too many male penguins, while Kolmarden Zoo in Sweden has an
oversupply of females. The species is in danger of dying out. At
Bremerhaven, the birds, which find new mates every year, form all-male pairs
and adopt pebbles as if they were eggs. 

Last year, officials said the females had arrived too late for pairing. And
this year, the birds arrived in time, but were too shy. 

"The Swedes are rather stand-offish," said zoo chief executive Heike Kueck.
Once again, four local females were quickly snapped up and the rest of the
22 penguins formed broody male couples and are keeping pebbles warm. 

Kueck said the project was not a gag, but part of a European species
conservation project. Penguin family planning is difficult, because
zoologists have difficulty telling the difference between a male and a
female, and zoo broods often become lop-sided. 


Last year, homosexual militants bombarded the zoo on Germany's North Sea
coast with e-mails and protest letters, charging that it was interfering in
the penguins' freedom of sexual orientation. 

Kueck rejected this. She said the way penguins pair has nothing to do with
personality but is a behavioral oddity of the species whenever females are
in short supply. 

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"