One of the most famous, and well known memes around is the socially awkward penguin meme. This particular fact just might make the socially awkward penguin just that more socially awkward. If you came to this page from our fact about sea otters raping seals, prepare to pick your jaw up from the floor. The Adelie penguins practice necrophilia, and that is just one of the strange and bizarre sexual acts these cute birds participate in.
On an expedition to Antarctica about a century ago, George Murray Levick, a scientist, spent nearly three years studying the breeding cycle and habits of the adelie penguins. To this day, he is the only person to have studied a full breeding cycle of the birds. As a proper gentleman, Levick was completely unprepared for what he would encounter. What he saw was shocking and never heard of before in the animal kingdom. The sexual activities of penguins were perverted, cruel and gruesome.
Levick witnessed adelie penguins raping females, practically forcing unwilling female penguins into sex. They were also seen participating in homosexual behavior, where the males would force other males into sex. Not only that, but they would also force baby penguin chicks into sex, occasionally killing some in the process. But this was only the tip of the iceberg as far as the sexual depravity of the adelie penguins goes.
Levick was shocked when he witnessed males having sex with the corpses of females, some of which had died the previous year. Not only did they have sex with long dead corpses, but if they killed another penguin during sex they would continue to have sex until they were done. When Levick discovered this unusual sexual behavior, especially the fact that penguins practice necrophilia, he marked his work “Not for Publication”. But later researchers were to not only rediscover his findings, but find even more outlandish sexual activity.
The later researchers found that not only do penguins practice necrophilia, but they will even have sex with just part of the deceased animals body. What the researchers done first to test Levicks findings was place a dead, frozen female in a submissive pose. The males found the dead female penguin too tempting and had sex with the corpse. Not yet finished, they took just the head of a dead penguin and placed it with some rocks. Again, the males were turned on and had sex with the head. Just the head!
The researchers, like Levick before them put the sexual behavior of penguins down to sexually frustrated, immature and inexperienced males. They were even seen having sex with the ground and rocks.
But it’s worthy noting that we shouldn’t judge penguins based on human sexual taboos. Also, the act of necrophilia by penguins is not as closely related to the act that humans have been known to engage in. All in all though, I would be extra careful if wearing a tuxedo while in their company.
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- Sea otters rape seals
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