SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s Celebrates World Penguin Day with Modern Day Romance

Just in time for World Penguin Day on Tuesday 25^th April, SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's has joined forces with Tourism New Zealand for their campaign that celebrates New Zealand as the number one destination to see and experience penguins.

Tourism New Zealand has marked the environmental day of significance by showcasing that nowhere celebrates penguins quite like New Zealand, in particular our beautiful story of Thelma and Louise, the female/female couple that are fostering a chick.

This same-sex couple is unique for SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's but must be noted that it is common for King Penguins to form a partnership with their own gender. King penguins require a bond rather than a more traditional male/female relationship during their breeding season and the same sex pairing has no impact on the raising of young.

The couple, affectionatly called Thelma and Louise who have been together for 5 years, took on the task of fostering the chick after a female king penguin laid a fertile egg but did not have a mate this season. To reduce the stress on the single mother our Penguin Keepers transferred the egg to the couple to incubate. The penguin chick, born February 26, will live a happy and healthy life just like the aquarium's other king penguin chick born earlier this year. The two female penguins, both 24 years old, are very fair in their approach to parenthood and both share the parenting load as a team.

Get up close and personal with New Zealand's only sub-Antarctic penguin colony with SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's Penguin Discovery Experience.