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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The romantic story of Wendell and Cass, tuxedo-clad life partners, as told by their keeper.
Mar 8, 2002 | The 32 African black-footed penguins on display at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, have been through a lot together. Last year, for instance, stray cats cornered and then threatened to attack the two-foot-tall, tuxedo-clad birds. Aquarium workers hired an exterminator to deal with the problem, and animal-lover chaos ensued. Most enraged in the skirmish were the pro-kitty locals whose hand-outs kept the felines skulking around the boardwalk -- and the beachfront aquarium.
And then there are the tensions that arise among penguins anywhere, tensions that flow from the pursuit of love and, in a penguin sort of way, marriage. Inside this little man-made concrete exhibit -- designed to simulate the rocky islands off South Africa from which they originate -- philandering female penguins angle for better nests; jilted lovers pick up and move after a love-interest freezes them out; and love triangles are inevitable, complete with messy fallout and recrimination.
For many years, the keepers of the Brooklyn penguins believed that these romantic trials and tribulations took place only between the male and female penguins in the exhibit. Recently, however, they discovered that one more variation on the love theme was represented in the mix -- and had been there for years. A blood test revealed that Wendell and Cass, an inseparable pair of 15-year-olds known for a tidy nest and enduring lust, were both male. It didn't surprise the aquarium folks, but the media got excited and recently outed the adoring and oblivious couple.
On a recent chilly afternoon, there wasn't much to see in the penguin enclosure. It was bedtime, and only stragglers loitered in public view. A lonely bachelor scoped out the scene, and a couple waddled around together, perhaps going for a stroll before hitting the sack.
Wendell and Cass already had curled up together for the night, and they weren't coming out of their cozy burrow anytime soon, according to penguin keeper Stephanie Mitchell. Living monogamously in a high-rise nest above the rest of the crew, the guys tend to ignore the sexual high jinks going on down below.
Same-sex relationships in the animal kingdom are more common than most people think. In fact, in his 1999 book, "Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity," biologist Bruce Bagemihl catalogs the unconventional sexual behaviors -- including bisexuality and transvestite tendencies -- of almost 200 different animals.
For this reason, says Mitchell, the aquarium staff wasn't particularly shocked by the revelation about Wendell and Cass' union. Other humans, however, seem endlessly curious about the relationship. In an interview at the aquarium, Mitchell talked about why Wendell and Cass are so devoted to each other, what the she-penguins on the prowl have to say about it, and how the whole affair went unnoticed for so long in the first place.
So do the female penguins seem to sense that Wendell and Cass don't want anything to do with them?
The females don't show an interest in all of the males; it's just a few of them that they like. Right now, we've got three out of 10 girls -- Ezmerelda, Gomez and Clarice -- who are experimenting with the availability of other males. That's 30 percent, which actually matches up with statistics that say that 30 to 40 percent of females will try to leave their mates and try to find other mates.
What happens?
Well, Gomez is a big flirt, and she just goes and visits with all these other males, and that causes Giovanni, her mate, a little bit of consternation. Ezmerelda has a little bit more of a situation with Old Man and Curly. Sometimes Old Man and Curly would fight with each other, but Curly's actually moved, so he's not really dealing with Ezmerelda anymore. I think he's given up.
