Here at Her.ie headquarters there’s nothing we adore more than a love story, and we have to say out of all the love stories we’ve heard, this one is most definitely the cutest.
A pair of Magellanic penguins have been dubbed one of the most faithful couples in the animal kingdom. Why? Well they’ve been together for 16 years – almost the entire span of their breeding life.
The thing that’s so cute about this story? The penguins’ relationship has flourished, despite the fact that couple spends long periods of time apart and despite the fact that each of them frequently take solo trips that span thousands of miles.
However, each year both the male and female penguin have returned to the same nest and to each other in order to produce a new brood of chicks (d’awww!) Who said romance was dead?
Now the penguins have officially grown old together and researchers believe they’ll continue to maintain their relationship until the end of their days.
The penguins have been together through thick and thin. How cute!
The Telegraph reports that biologists and animal experts have expressed surprise at how strong the couple’s relationship is, as most penguin relationships are usually cut short for a number of reasons. The main one being that in a Magellanic penguin partnership, the couple “divorces” if they fail to successfully hatch their chicks.
“The bond they have is incredible really,” said Dr Pablo Garcia Borboroglue, a researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina, who has been leading long-term research into the couple’s partnership.
“It is unbelievable how far Magellanic penguins swim – and each breeding season they come back to the same nest and to the same partner,” he added.
There you have it ladies. If this story doesn’t warm you up on this miserable Monday, we’re not sure what will!
