Roto and Copper, two Gentoo penguins at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Utah, cared for three children together, taking turns feeding them. They’re a social pair, just like Coco and Gossamer, a neighbouring penguin couple that raised their own chicks.
Or did they?
We tend to think of penguins as monogamous, with social bonds formed between two parents for life. But researchers discovered that penguins in captivity, like some species in the wild, sometimes stray. After sampling the DNA of 19 Gentoo penguins at the aquarium, they revealed last month in ‘ZooBiology’ that Roto is the father of two chicks believed to be Gossamer’s offspring.
The story sounds like a daytime TV talk show, climaxing with a surprise paternity test result. But for zoo animals, it’s important. These penguins are set to be part of a programme pairing the most genetically diverse animals from different facilities, like people in a matchmaking service, to ensure a healthy penguin population in case this species ever goes extinct.
For this penguin dating service to work, documenting familial lineages is critical to avoiding inbreeding.
Of eight offspring they tested, two had a biological father that wasn’t their social father. Another female had been mating with two different males — even though the males were in stable social pairs.
Eric Domyan, a biology professor at Utah Valley University who led the testing, wasn’t surprised. “It’s very rare to find monogamy in any species where there’s 100% fidelity to one’s mate. I expected that to be the case with penguins as well.”
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