GAY PENGWIN!
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[quote:41c0f]A German zoo has imported four female penguins from Sweden in an effort to tempt its gay penguins to go straight.
The four Swedish females were dispatched to the Bremerhaven Zoo in Bremen after it was found that three of the zoo's five penguin pairs were homosexual.
Keepers at the zoo ordered DNA tests to be carried out on the penguins after they had been mating for years without producing any chicks.
It was only then they realised that six of the birds were living in homosexual partnerships.
Director Heike Kueck said that the zoo hoped to see some baby penguins in the coming months.
She said that the birds had been mating for years and one couple even adopted a stone that they protected like an egg.
Kueck said that the project has the support of the European Endangered Species Programme because the penguins, which are native to South America, are an endangered species.
A biologist will be on hand to monitor the experiment.
But introducing the Bremerhaven penguins to their new Swedish friends may not be as successful as hoped after earlier experiments revealed great difficulties in separating homosexual couples.
In case they show no interest, the zoo has also flown in two new male penguins "so that the ladies don't miss out altogether", Kueck added.[/quote:41c0f]
SEXY SWEDISH PENGWINS DONT CHANGE THE GAY
[quote:41c0f]A German zoo's plans to tempt its gay penguins to go straight by importing more females has been declared a failure.
The female penguins were flown in especially from Sweden in an effort to encourage the Humboldt penguins at the Bremerhaven Zoo to reproduce.
But the six homosexual penguins showed no interest in their new female companions and remained faithful to each other.
Zoo Director Heike Kueck said: "The relationships were apparently too strong."
A keeper confirmed that the male couples had adopted rocks which they were guarding like eggs in their caves.
The zoo has said that it will try again in Spring 2006, because the penguins are an endangered species and need to be encouraged to breed.[/quote:41c0f]
GAY RIGHTS GROUPS TAKE OFFENSE
[quote:41c0f]The Bremerhaven Zoo had earlier flown in four female Humboldt penguins in an attempt to encourage three couples discovered to be all male to reproduce.
The zoo originally defended the experiment, claiming that the birds were an endangered species, but following protests from gay rights groups, director Heike Kueck has said that the zoo is abandoning the plan.
She said: "Everyone can live here as they please."
Kueck said that it was neither her intention nor possible to separate the gay couples by force and interest them in their new female companions.
She added that the penguins had shown little interest in their new female companions but said that the programme could have been started too late in the year.
Gay groups had earlier protested against "the organised and forced harassment through female seductresses" in an open letter to Bremerhaven's Mayor Joerg Schulz.
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