Lucien Alperstein

Thank you, Daphne.

And hi, everybody.

So a friend of mine has a theory that because birds exist between the land and the sky and also sometimes the sea, they're between worlds and that means they're bisexual.

And people who are into birds are also bisexual.

As a scientist, I don't stand by it.

I don't think it's the way we conduct science, but we come to a lot of the same conclusions when we look at the evidence.

I'm going to be talking about pairing and raising young together.

Did you know that Sydney is home to an absolutely iconic same-sex pair, Fen and Magic?

These divas came onto the scene in 2018.

Keepers at the zoo noticed that these Gentoo penguins were spending a lot of time together, both in and out of breeding season, and that's a little bit unusual.

They were found building a nest.

When a stray egg appeared, the keepers took a chance on Sven and Magic.

They incubated that egg successfully and raised their firstborn, Svengic.

This iconic family inspired a Mardi Gras float, a book called Svengik and also a reference in the Australian education system.

And now I know what you're thinking.

They're in a zoo.

It's a captive population.

It's not representative of how these animals exist in the wild.

If only there were a polar explorer who had seen some penguins in nature.

Introducing George Murray Levick.