A penguin story

This story about penguins at Christchurch's International Antarctic Centre is too cute:

By Shahra Walsh, The Press

Spring heralds the start of the breeding season for penguins at the International Antarctic Centre, which means sweet serenades, love triangles, and sometimes, bitter heartbreak.

Penguin keeper Bob Morgan said the centre's little blue penguins work hard and risk rejection to win over a mate. "There’s lots of squawking and carry on. The males do a lot of singing and they’ll ponce up to a [female] bird. If she’s receptive, she won’t attack them. If she doesn’t want to know she’ll just turn round and whack - it’s a bit like true life," he said.

And like true life, not all love birds live happily ever after. One such pair was Alex and CC who arrived at the centre as a couple three years ago. "They’d been together for seven years when they came here but alas and alack CC decided she wanted a fresh start so she dumped Alex unceremoniously and moved in with Elvis. "Alex is devastated. It happened 12 months ago and he still stands outside her burrow calling out," he said.

Morgan said that although Alex will "move on eventually, his role in life is to create other penguins so he’ll eventually forsake her and go look for another partner."

Jilted penguin Mo, who used to share a burrow with Austin, has also had to move on with his life. "Mo arrived here friendly with Austin and we thought Mo was female. Turns out they were both blokes. They were like a couple of bachelors in a flat. "Mo started moulting and lost all his feathers and looked terribly unattractive, so Austin left him. Then Mo got a wonderful coat of feathers again and Austin went back to see him but Mo said no way," Morgan explained. Mo is now happily paired up with Half-pint, a pair that were perhaps drawn together by a common disability - both have injured left flippers.

Twenty-six little blue penguins live at the centre, most of which are rescued and arrive with various injuries and disabilities. Although many of the centre’s couples are nesting, Morgan said it is unlikely any of the eggs are fertile. "Most of our birds are much older than they would get to in the wild, so we expect those eggs to be infertile. We do not raise penguins for release into the wild, we are concerned with looking after birds that can’t look after themselves," Morgan said. The breeding season will continue over the next couple of months, and like a popular television soap opera, there’s sure to be more romance and drama in store for the centre’s favourite characters.