It may be the summer of love for the hot singletons in this year’s Love Island villa but closer to home things are also heating up as SEA LIFE London Aquarium’s colony of Gentoo penguins couple up for their yearly mating season.
Penguin mating season usually runs from March to July, during which prospective couples take part in a series of mating habits, including one where male penguins give their beloveds a pebble to not only win their love, but as a sign of their breeding credentials. The pebbles are then used to build a nest before the females settle down to lay their eggs.
At Penguin Point, same sex couple Rocky and Marama were going steady just like Love Island’s power couple Tasha and Andrew until the mysterious Honey came along and had a secret affair with not one but both of the female penguins!
Handsome Italian Davide has been unlucky in love so far on the hit ITV2 show but he could definitely take inspiration from SEA LIFE’s largest penguin Elton who, unlike Davide, has been paired up with petite Ripley since 2020 and had two chicks together last year through their successful relationship.
Ziggy and Polly are SEA LIFE London Aquarium’s newest couple – with the biggest age difference! But age is just a number as older female Polly is clearly youngster Ziggy’s ‘type on paper’, with the pair spotted cheekily slapping each other’s bottoms. However, there might be trouble in paradise as Polly doesn’t seem keen to settle down and has started neglecting her nest duties and being a little distant.
Speaking about the penguins’ mating season, Catherine Pritchard, General Manager at SEA LIFE London Aquarium, said: “You don’t just have to watch Love Island to see dates, partner swapping and relationship drama. The penguins at SEA LIFE London Aquarium partner up every mating season as the excitement builds in the hope that we’ll once again hear the pitter patter of tiny penguin feet.
“But it’s not all about the mating rituals, our Gentoo population is carefully managed to maintain genetic diversity and we consult the European studbook holder before breeding. Whilst we never influence our penguins, you could say we’re our penguins’ perfect wing men and women!”
In the animal kingdom, penguins usually have one partner per breeding season and are therefore seen as monogamous creatures.
However, much like the Love Islanders, this is not always true and it is not uncommon to see extra couplings occurring in a single season. Penguin relationships are in fact more similar to humans than we would expect, as some penguins will stay together for life and others for just part of a breeding season.
Guests can come down and see the attraction’s famous couples in Penguin Point at the South Bank attraction seven days a week throughout this Summer of Love.
