Are Roy and Silo a hatch made in heaven?
Central Park penguins have eyes only for each other
Scientists drawn into legal debate over gay rights
DINITIA SMITH
NEW YORK TIMES
NEW YORKâRoy and Silo, chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, are devoted to each other.
For nearly six years now, they have been inseparable: they exhibit what in penguin parlance is called "ecstatic behaviour;'' that is, they entwine their necks, they vocalize to each other, they have sex.
Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the females aren't interested in them, either.
At one time, the two seemed so desperate to incubate an egg together that they put a rock in their nest and sat on it, keeping it warm in the folds of their abdomens, said their chief keeper, Rob Gramzay.
Finally, he gave them a fertile egg, and Roy and Silo sat on it for 34 days until a chick, Tango, was born. For the next two and a half months they raised Tango, keeping her warm and feeding her until she could go out into the world.
Roy and Silo are hardly unusual. Indeed, scientists have found homosexual behaviour throughout the animal world.
This growing body of science has been increasingly drawn into charged debates about homosexuality, on subjects from gay marriage to sodomy laws, despite reluctance from experts in the field to extrapolate from animals to humans.
Gay groups argue that if homosexual behaviour occurs in animals, it is natural, and therefore the rights of homosexuals should be protected. On the other hand, some conservative religious groups have condemned the same practices in the past, calling them "animalistic.''
But if homosexuality occurs among animals, does that necessarily mean that it is natural for humans, too? And that raises a familiar question: If homosexuality is not a choice, but a result of natural forces that cannot be controlled, can it be immoral?
The open discussion of homosexual behaviour in animals is relatively new.
"There has been a certain cultural shyness about admitting it," said Frans de Waal, whose 1997 book, Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, unleashed a torrent of discussion.
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