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American Morning

Gay Penguins At the New York Aquarium

Aired February 19, 2002 - 08:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: A story of lasting love. You may or may not know that penguins are known for being monogamous, and now there's new evidence that their long-term relationships are not always what they seem.

JACK CAFFERTY: Just like the rest of us.

COOPER: CNN's Jeanne Moos -- well I don't know about that Jack, let's see.

CNN's Jeanne Moos has the story of a romance between a pair in tuxedos.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ellen and Anne may have split up, but Wendell and Cass are still going strong.

(on camera): They're gay penguins.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're what?

MOOS: Gay penguins.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're happy penguins

MOOS: No, gay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, gay penguins.

MOOS: No, really.

(voice-over): You can't tell them apart from the 30 other straight penguins at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Wendell right here that I'm feeding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gay penguins?

MOOS (on camera): Yes, what they...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you know they're gay?

STEPHANIE MITCHELL, ANIMAL KEEPER: I mean it's a same sex couple, you know, I -- and we have actually observed them copulating so or at least attempting to copulate so..

MOOS (voice-over): Wendell and Cass have lived together in the same burrow for seven years, longer than most marriages these days.

MITCHELL: They're one of our greatest couples. I mean they're so dedicated.

MOOS: They preen each other. When they're apart, they vocalize to one another, just like male-female couples do. We're all used to seeing heterosexual animal couples. From apes to emus with their elaborate courtship dances, but this is a photo of two male apes kissing.

Homosexuality involving everything from giraffes to walruses is documented in a scholarly book on the subject entitled "Biological Exuberance." The author even includes a formula used for estimating the number of lesbian seagulls. There's a whole chapter on penguins.

(on camera): Those are gay penguins.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop playing.

MOOS (voice-over): Folks thought we were pulling their leg.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the funniest thing I've heard today. That made my day, gay penguins. Okay, everybody else is doing it, why not the penguins?

MOOS: Since boy penguins don't have typical male equipment, it's not so easy to determine their sex.

MITCHELL: Cass was Cassandra.

MOOS: Keepers assumed he was a she until blood tests and behavior confirmed Cass is a male.

(on camera): So they've been an out gay couple for awhile?

MITCHELL: Right.

MOOS (voice-over): Reminds us of that episode of "SOUTH PARK" where Sparky the dog is outed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARTMAN: Yeah, dude, I think your dog is gay.

STAN: He's just confused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Sparky runs away to Big Gay Al's Big Gay Animal Sanctuary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIG GAY AL: Over here we have a gay lion. LION: Roar.

AL: And we have gay water buffalo, gay hummingbirds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Sort of like the New York Aquarium.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been observations of the dolphins copulating with each other.

MOOS: Tab and Presley are both males. While Wendell came down for the feeding, Cass stayed up in the couple's coveted penthouse burrow to keep other penguins from moving in. The keeper brought the fish to him.

MITCHELL: You get door to door service today, honey.

Cass seems to be more, I mean I hate to say this, but Cass is more of the guy in the family and you know he's more of the pursuer as far as the relationship goes.

MOOS: Top penguin, though occasionally roles reverse. The straight penguins don't seem to care. Cass and Wendell may be on the rocks, but their relationship isn't.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: There you go, gay penguins, lesbian seagulls, who knew?

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