Who knew!!
CHILLY WILLIES By HEIDI SINGER
It's splitsville for New York's favorite gay penguins — and one of the lover-birds has taken up with a fetching female.
Now, the Central Park Zoo is dealing with a gay-straight love triangle Jerry Springer couldn't dream up. And nobody knows who will lay claim to the pair's adopted chick.
The drama started when Silo left Roy, his mate of six years, for Scrappy, a female transplant from SeaWorld who'd never had chicks.
'Silo and Roy stopped spending as much time together or building a nest,' said John Rowden, the zoo's curator of animals.
At first, Silo started hanging out with different female birds — but then Scrappy caught his eye.
The new hetero pair built a nest, but never produced an egg. Still, they can be spotted hanging out together in the middle of the penguin display — while Roy sits glumly on the sidelines, all alone.
So-called 'gay' penguin couples have been widely noticed in zoos. But scientists have never studied the phenomenon in the wild, so it remains a mystery why two male animals shack up together.
'Why does anyone bond? Why do people want to get married and divorced? Presumably, they've got their reasons,' said penguin researcher Dee Boersma.
The pairings are common enough among the 65 flippered friends at the Central Park Zoo; there have been six same-sex couples in the past three years, Rowden said.
The penguin lovers actually do have sex, though they can't lay eggs. But Roy and Silo took their relationship to a higher level when they tried incubating a rock, and then successfully raised a chick from an extra egg given to them by a zookeeper.
The successful parenting cemented their fame as poster-penguins for gay love.
Their breed, called chinstraps for the black line under their heads, is known for being loyal, territorial and incredibly feisty, experts say. So Roy probably didn't take the diss lying down.
'Revenge wouldn't be the word I'd use,' said Boersma. 'But there might be a fight between the new and old mates. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see some flipper-whacking and pecking.'
Roy kept his distance from the happy couple yesterday. He stayed on the far end of the penguin display staring at a wall, while Silo and Scrappy flirted, raising their beaks to each other and swiveling their necks to reaffirm their marriage.
'Penguins aren't that different from people,' said Boersma. 'If you got divorced, would you want to see your old mate around?'
Besides, Roy has probably moved on, she said.
'He's probably courting other penguins, getting ready for next season.'
It's splitsville for New York's favorite gay penguins — and one of the lover-birds has taken up with a fetching female.
Now, the Central Park Zoo is dealing with a gay-straight love triangle Jerry Springer couldn't dream up. And nobody knows who will lay claim to the pair's adopted chick.
The drama started when Silo left Roy, his mate of six years, for Scrappy, a female transplant from SeaWorld who'd never had chicks.
'Silo and Roy stopped spending as much time together or building a nest,' said John Rowden, the zoo's curator of animals.
At first, Silo started hanging out with different female birds — but then Scrappy caught his eye.
The new hetero pair built a nest, but never produced an egg. Still, they can be spotted hanging out together in the middle of the penguin display — while Roy sits glumly on the sidelines, all alone.
So-called 'gay' penguin couples have been widely noticed in zoos. But scientists have never studied the phenomenon in the wild, so it remains a mystery why two male animals shack up together.
'Why does anyone bond? Why do people want to get married and divorced? Presumably, they've got their reasons,' said penguin researcher Dee Boersma.
The pairings are common enough among the 65 flippered friends at the Central Park Zoo; there have been six same-sex couples in the past three years, Rowden said.
The penguin lovers actually do have sex, though they can't lay eggs. But Roy and Silo took their relationship to a higher level when they tried incubating a rock, and then successfully raised a chick from an extra egg given to them by a zookeeper.
The successful parenting cemented their fame as poster-penguins for gay love.
Their breed, called chinstraps for the black line under their heads, is known for being loyal, territorial and incredibly feisty, experts say. So Roy probably didn't take the diss lying down.
'Revenge wouldn't be the word I'd use,' said Boersma. 'But there might be a fight between the new and old mates. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see some flipper-whacking and pecking.'
Roy kept his distance from the happy couple yesterday. He stayed on the far end of the penguin display staring at a wall, while Silo and Scrappy flirted, raising their beaks to each other and swiveling their necks to reaffirm their marriage.
'Penguins aren't that different from people,' said Boersma. 'If you got divorced, would you want to see your old mate around?'
Besides, Roy has probably moved on, she said.
'He's probably courting other penguins, getting ready for next season.'
