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Post by Star Cluster on Nov 9, 2011 7:09:14 GMT -5
The Toronto Zoo is planning on separating these two penguins that exhibit all the signs of a gay relationship in order to breed them. Wonder how that's going to work out. |
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Nov 9, 2011 7:16:08 GMT -5
Congratulations, Zoo, you've officially treated a pair of animals more like a machine (put all the cogs in the right place) than living beings.
I think you missed the whole point of "saving the species" in the first place.
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Post by Vene on Nov 9, 2011 10:41:34 GMT -5
You really cannot equate non-human sexuality to human sexuality.
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Post by tgrwulf on Nov 9, 2011 11:06:31 GMT -5
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Post by Tiberius on Nov 9, 2011 11:25:41 GMT -5
Congratulations, Zoo, you've officially treated a pair of animals more like a machine (put all the cogs in the right place) than living beings. I think you missed the whole point of "saving the species" in the first place. Last I checked, the idea behind saving the species was to breed them so that they might be reinntroduced into the wild >.>. I don't see how trying to make non breeding penguins breed is contrary to that. |
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Post by anti-nonsense on Nov 9, 2011 11:50:43 GMT -5
why not use Artificial Insemination?
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Post by Vene on Nov 9, 2011 12:32:35 GMT -5
why not use Artificial Insemination? The technology may not exist for penguins. |
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Post by Dragon Zachski on Nov 9, 2011 14:58:42 GMT -5
You really cannot equate non-human sexuality to human sexuality. Watch me. Last I checked, the idea behind saving the species was to breed them so that they might be reinntroduced into the wild >.>. I don't see how trying to make non breeding penguins breed is contrary to that. ...:V Missed the point there, Tibbs. Essentially, I'm saying that instead of treating them as living beings to save, this treats them more like cogs in a machine. And they were picked specifically of their genes. Yet there's other penguins that can breed. So, essentially, the zoo went "Fuck your relationship, you have genes, so get mating with the females" Not to mention penguins mate for life. |
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Post by Star Cluster on Nov 9, 2011 15:16:48 GMT -5
When I was preparing to post the OP, I debated as to which category to put it under. I started to put it under religion because one relevant aspect of this story that is hit on but not really delved into is that, contrary to what anti-gay religionists say, homosexuality does exist in nature and is not merely a choice that humans make. As stated in the article, homosexual relationships have been observed in 1500 species. But since it doesn't get into the religious side of the argument, I placed it here. But the first thing I thought of when reading the article was that there is homosexuality among species other than humans and this article shows that. Can't you just imagine the fundies doing back flips trying to explain their way around this?
As far as penguins themselves are concerned, most penguins do mate for life, so it may not work out that they will mate with females when placed in an interactive environment with them. I think it will be interesting to see what happens, and if they do mate with females, if they would return to the male/male relationship if reintroduced to each other.
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Post by Vene on Nov 9, 2011 15:18:12 GMT -5
Zach, then you are giving human traits, desires, and motives to a non-human species with no justification; false premises lead to stupid conclusions. You know, the saying “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me,” that is what you are doing. And if the other penguins breed, it means the species goes bye-bye, Zach, as there won't be enough genetic diversity. This is a pretty decent article about the subject. This quote in particular stuck out to me: As zoo animals go, penguins are particularly difficult to breed. If Pedro and Buddy were wood bison, zookeepers could simply extract their sperm and use it to artificially inseminate an eligible female. But among penguins, the labour-intensive process of incubating and hatching an egg is next to impossible for one parent. So, as I suspected, artificial insemination won't work. Maybe the zookeepers, trained professionals who spend all day working with the animals, know more than you do. This one also stuck out: A 2010 study of penguin homosexuality by France’s Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology concluded that penguin homosexuality is widespread, but rarely last longer than a few years. This means your argument that they mate for life has been refuted, again the trained professionals know more. In short, you're being highly sentimental to the point of suggesting we harm the species. It's just foolish. |
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