Two male African penguins recently made worldwide headlines after it appeared the two might be gay. As it turns out, Toronto Zoo’s gay penguins were not really gay after all. A female has come between them, and they have officially been split up.

Buddy, who is 21, and Pedro who is 10, became known as Toronto’s “gay penguins”, and the story went viral online.

They became the subject of much speculation, and of course, the subject of numerous jokes.

Comedians jumped on the bandwagon with Jimmy Kimmel even referring to them in a monologue as “Brokeback Iceberg”.

But, their bromance was cut short after Toronto Zoo’s curator of birds and invertebrates, Tom Mason, announced yesterday that Buddy had successfully mated with a female, Farai, on 19 November.

Pedro had been trying to romance another female, Thandiwey, for several weeks, but Pedro hadn’t been able to get Thandiwey to respond to him yet though.

Buddy and Pedro had shared a nest for about a year after arriving at the zoo, but the zoo decided that birds’ separation was necessary because penguins are an endangered species, and the two needed to mate with females.

Coincidentally, Buddy had previously had a female mate for 10 years and produced some offspring before she died.

Pedro had not yet fathered any offspring but it’s hoped he will find his fatherly feet soon.

[Source: Guardian]