As we near the end of 2019 and reflect on some of that rare feel-good news the year brought us, one topic springs immediately to mind: gay penguins.
That's because, well, gay penguins have had an undeniably big year - proving not only that they do indeed exist, but that they are pretty great at maintaining healthy relationships and raising healthy chicks.
From Germany to London to Sydney, here are some of our favourite gay penguin stories from 2019 (you can click each title to read the original article):
Three months after Sydney's famous gay penguin couple Sphen and Magic welcomed their first baby chick, Sea Life Aquarium confirmed that the chick was a girl - and that her name was Sphengic.
“After months of waiting - and regular questioning from the public - we’re so excited to finally have a confirmation that Baby Sphengic is a little girl!” Department Supervisor Tish Hannan said in a statement.
Sphengic had not been assigned a gender at birth because penguins’ reproductive organs form internally, meaning the biological sex can only be known following a blood test.
“As penguin parents share equal responsibility of raising young, building and maintaining the nest, gender roles aren’t defined in penguins," Hannan said.
Sphen, Magic and baby Sphengic. Source: Supplied
"So whilst Baby Sphengic is a female on paper, that’s where the role ends. She’ll grow up to play both mummy and daddy one day - just like Sphen and Magic."
In the most exciting baby news since Meghan Markle introduced Prince Archie to the world, London's favourite lesbian penguins, Rocky and Marama, adopted a chick - who, aquarium staff announced, would be raised 'genderless'.
Rocky and Marama, who have been together for five years, live at London's Sea Life aquarium, where they first alerted staff to their cluckiness by building the biggest nest in the colony.
When another penguin mum couldn't handle the pressure of raising two chicks, zoo staff recognised an opportunity to spread the love - giving Marama and Rocky one egg to hatch and raise as their own. , the chick would be "the world's first penguin to not have its gender assigned".
In a press release, the aquarium explained that staff had "decided it was more natural for the chick to grow and develop into a mature adult as genderless, which is normal in the wild until they mature."
Source: Sea Life London
Berlin Zoo joined in on the gay penguin movement, sharing news that local same-sex king penguin couple Skipper and Ping had not only adopted an abandoned egg, but become "model parents".
zoo spokesperson Maximilian Jäger, the clucky couple had been known to , before taking ownership of the egg and "behaving like model parents, taking turns to keep the egg warm".
Speaking to the New York Times, Jäger also said: "We are sure they would be good parents because they were so nice to their stone."
"We just had to put it on the feet of one of the guys, and he already knew what to do," zookeeper Norbert Zahmel told the .
For many, the month of June this year meant World Pride celebrations - and London's gay penguins, Ronnie and Reggie, weren't about to miss out on all the fun.
The pair, who adopted an abandoned chick back in 2015, had their living space decorated with a large banner reading "some penguins are gay, get over it" - an homage to Stonewall's Get Over It campaign on the .
The Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium in Ireland revealed that it had become the home to not one, but two same-sex penguin couples.
Speaking to, the aquarium’s manager Louise Overy updated zoo-goers: “We [now] have two homosexual and two lesbian ones. You cannot tell a male penguin from a female by their sexual organs so the only way we know is when we see them mating and not producing chicks.”
She added: “The lesbian ones (named Penelope and Misty) will take action if they feel broody. They will waddle over to a male to do what needs to be done and rear the chick with their female partner.”
Source: Supplied
To round out the year, Sea Life's Penguin Department Supervisor Tish Hannan delivered the happy news that Sphen and Magic had fostered their second egg.
"I'm happy to announce that our strongest power couple, Sphen and Magic, are still together for the second year in a row," Hannan said in a video posted to social media.
"We fostered them another egg this year," she explained, adding that it wasn't yet clear if the egg had been fertilised. "So Sphengic may or may not have a little baby brother or sister."
