Sphen the gentoo penguin, best known as one half of a popular same-sex power couple and parent duo at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, has died at the age of 11 – leaving behind an impressive legacy.
“The loss of Sphen is heartbreaking for the penguin colony, the team and everyone who has been inspired or positively influenced by Sphen and Magic’s story,” aquarium executive director Richard Dilly said in a statement seen by the BBC.
Along with partner Magic, Sphen first made headlines in 2018 when the pair’s romance began to blossom during the breeding season.
“We went there and Magic and Sphen were bowing to each other,” Tish Hannan, head of the aquarium’s penguin department, told ABC News at the time. “The bow is the gentoo penguins’ way of showing that they love each other, and it’s super sweet.”
This love led them to build a nest of pebbles for an egg, like the other penguin couples in the colony. And because the aquarium staff didn’t want to withhold anything from them, they gave them a fake egg to care for.
When it turned out that they had passed the trial shift as parents with flying colors, Sphen and Magic received a real egg from another pair and successfully hatched the chick Sphengic (after their ship’s name) in 2018 and later Clancy in 2020.
Not only did their relationship go beyond the strength of the bond normally seen between pairs of gentoo penguins – “They could even be found together outside of the breeding season, which is unique for gentoo penguins,” said a statement from Sea Life Sydney – but it also made them icons of equality, as their fame drew attention to the frequency of same-sex relationships in the animal world.
“They inspired a carnival float, were included in the NSW curriculum and even appeared in the Netflix series Atypical“Countless books tell of their love story, and Sphen and Magic have even appeared in documentaries about same-sex animal couples,” the aquarium said.
Although scientists report it much less frequently than it actually occurs, same-sex behavior is widespread in the animal world. A recent study has found that it has been observed in over 1,500 animal species. According to the author of A little gay natural historyJosh Davis, it’s probably a lot more.
“Although it has only been officially detected in around 1,500 species, that number is likely a massive underestimate,” Davis told IFLScience in a recent interview. “That’s because it’s found in pretty much every branch of the evolutionary tree, from beetles and butterflies to turtles and squirrels. So the idea that it’s restricted to just a few hundred of the 2.13 million species described so far is extremely unlikely.”
Although penguins are perhaps the best-known example—Sphen and Magic are not the only famous couple—same-sex behavior, including parenting, has also been observed in other birds, including mammals, fish, and insects.
Add to that the awareness that Sphen has created for species conservation through his fame, and you have a small legacy that leaves behind a great legacy.
