Reader Submitted
May 6, 2008
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SUBMITTED BY ANOMIE: In what has been called the first recorded instance of a mammal trying to have sex with another class of vertebrate, an arctic fur seal recently attempted to rape an unsuspecting king penguin.

The South-African based scientists, who recorded the entire 45-minute incident, are baffled as to why a seal would try to rape a penguin. Although rape is quite common in the animal kingdom, such incidents are typically within-species, or at the least, within-class. And are any of us surprised to learn that the vast majority of rape in the animal kindom is male on female? The second-place prize for frequency goes to male-on-male rape.

The scientists think that the young male seal might have been sexually frustrated, and thust turned to the penguin out of desperation.

In an interesting turn, they are also quick to note that king penguins are the most heteronormative of the penguin lot, pointing out the chinstrap penguin’s propensity toward homosexuality and the adelie’s tendency to engage in prostitution. The king penguin, on the other hand, is known for its predilection toward long-term heterosexual monogamy.

It’s almost as though they want to emphasize that it was the purest penguin of all who was subjected to this unlikely attack.

Those other penguins, they would have been asking for it, with their loose, immoral ways.

[Photo by pesterussa]