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These two Macaroni penguins are living their best lives at the Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo in Pembrokeshire, now that their close friendship has blossomed into a romantic relationship.
6-year-old Vinnie and 12-year-old Frankie are celebrating Pride Month with their zookepers, with Penguin Keeper Caroline Davies explaining that they “kind of knew they were a proper couple because they were allopreening and that basically is penguin kissing.“
“Like all great romances, they started off as friends, and they kind of got a little bit closer, a little bit closer, and now they are an absolute amazing couple together,” Davies revealed.
The pair enjoy spending time together, going on dinner dates and having the best time during their beach walks in their closure.
Located in the UK, Folly Farm’s Penguin Coast is the only place where visitors can see Macaroni penguins in the UK, and just one of three zoos in Europe, as the population of penguins worldwide has decreased by approximately 30 per cent over the last 30 years.
Zookeepers for Vinnie and Frankie have also said that they would like for the love birds to become parents in the future. They would not be the first couple of gay penguins to become parents, as a pair of male Humboldt penguins are parents to a hatchling at New York Zoo since last year, and a different couple, Stanley and Stevie, also became parents in Wisconsin’s Racine Zoo.
The first couple of gay penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo, were discovered in 1998.