Wild Footage Shows Two Penguins Engaging in a Bloody Brawl Fighting for a Female’s Love

Love is not an easy endeavor, even for penguins. The adorable flightless birds spread across the Antarctic continent have a reputation for being a social and friendly nature, but you dare not cheat their faith. When it comes to marital affairs, penguins and humans are more alike than different. A Magellanic penguin was utterly disheartened upon finding his wife cheating with another penguin. Hence, a brutal battle ensued with both male counterparts vying for the female penguin’s companionship. National Geographic Animals (@NatGeoAnimals) was able to document the entire incident in striking footage shared online.

Titled, Homewrecking Penguin, the video unfolds with a flock of about 20,000 penguins migrating to a seashore to build nests and breed. Zeroing in on one such penguin couple, viewers see a lone husband returning home to his biggest heartbreak. He finds his wife holed up in their nest with another male penguin. Unable to contain his anger, the penguin sparks an aggressive battle with the homewrecker. “His strategy is simple, batter the homewrecker until he flees,” the narrator explains. For those unversed, in a penguin brawl, the birds use their flippers “like baseball bats” to club each other and gouge each other’s eyes with their sharp pointed beaks. 

The fight transformed into a bloody battle after both the males called on the female penguin for the ultimate decision. Sadly, she chose the homewrecker, a truth hard to digest for the jilted husband. As the love birds return home, the heartbroken husband follows them home only to pick another intense battle. “Penguins usually use their beaks to gouge their burrows, now they are gouging out eyes,” the narrator adds. Meanwhile, the two birds are covered in blood, a price paid for their love. Yet, neither of them barely gave in until a victor emerged. The injured husband, now on the verge of becoming prey to larger animals, let out a final cry of pain for his wife before moving away from the burrow. “He will lick his wounds and move on,” the concluding note stated. A tragic love story. 

Penguins are associated with, and used as an example by humans, for their loyalty and the notion that they mate for life. However, new studies have debunked this misconception, suggesting that while many species are socially monogamous, they do not actually live and die with only one partner. Researchers at Monash University tracked a flock of thousand paired Little penguins over 12 breeding seasons and were surprised to find 250 divorces, that is 21 breakups between 2000 and 2013, per Science Alert. "In good times, they largely stick with their partners, although there's often a bit of hanky-panky happening on the side,” said ecophysiologist Richard Reina, who studied the penguins for two decades. 

Breeding success appears to be a matter of concern for the birds as they search for new mates typically after a poor reproductive season. Echoing similar thoughts, Andre Chiarardia, a marine scientist at the university, talked to ABC News about the behavioral changes in Little Penguins breeding on Phillip Island. It apparently gave the birds more time for infidelity. "They finish earlier and think, 'Oh, I can have a second go. Behind the scenes, they can have four to five partners in one night,” he explained. 

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