 Roy and Silo were chinstrap penguins, similar to those pictured. | |
| Species | Chinstrap penguin |
|---|---|
| Sex | Both male |
| Hatched | 1987 (age 36–37) |
| Known for | Same sex animal couple |
| Offspring | Tango |
Roy and Silo (born 1987) were two male chinstrap penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo. They were noted by staff at the zoo in 1998 to be performing mating rituals, and one of them in 1999 attempted to hatch a rock as if it were an egg. This inspired zoo keepers to give them an egg from a pair of penguins, which could not hatch it, resulting in both of them raising a chick that was named Tango.[1]
Tango herself was viewed in a similar situation with another female penguin. Roy and Silo drifted apart after several years, and in 2005, Silo paired with a female penguin called Scrappy. Roy and Silo's story has been made into a children's book and featured in a play. The practice of allowing pairs of male penguin couples to adopt eggs has been repeated in other zoos around the world. [2] Both Tango and Roy have since died.[2]
- ^ McKie, Robin (8 February 2004). "New York flips as penguins come out in Central Park". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ a b UC Berkeley Library (26 September 2018). "We asked members of the ucberkeley community: What is your favorite banned book?". Twitter. Retrieved 24 July 2021.