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penguins
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After traveling by bus by myself for two weeks, I am in the company of my wife again. I told her that for the rest of our South American trip, she can choose every and any destination and activity that she wishes. So on the first day together, we are going to see some penguins*! Continue reading
Dr. George Murray Levick, a scientist attached to the 1910-1912 Scott Antarctic Expedition, observed an entire breeding cycle of the Adélie penguins at Cape Adare. He was shocked to witness males trying to have sex with dead, presumably frozen, females as well as other male penguins. He also noted that males would engage in sexual coercion of females and chicks, occasionally killing them.
These findings so disturbed Levick that he wrote his notes in Greek, so that only educated men could decipher them. Once back in Great Britain, he published a paper in English titled Natural History of the Adélie Penguin, but the penguin’s mating habits were deemed indecent and removed.
50 years later, Dr. Levick’s original notes were found among the artifacts of the Scott Expedition and the secrets of the Adélie penguins have been exposed.