“Cualquier autobús me deja cerca de casa”, en versión animal

El mundo es ese lugar cruel en el que, en tiempo de guerra, cualquier agujero es una trinchera. El reino animal no se libra de esta crudeza. Las siguientes imágenes proceden de un breve artículo científico titulado Sexual harassment of a king penguin by an Antarctic fur seal. Allá vamos:

Dicen que una imagen vale más que mil palabras, pero no puedo resistirme a pegarles la descripción de los hechos (las negritas son mías):

A young adult male Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) in good condition was observed attempting to copulate with an adult king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) of unknown sex, at Trypot beach on sub-Antarctic Marion Island (46°52′S, 37°51′E) during the mid-morning of 21 December 2006 (Fig. 1a, b). The approximate weight of this fur seal, based on estimated age, was between 100 and 120 kg (Bonner 1968), while that of an adult king penguin varies between 10­-21 kg (Hanel and Chown 1998). The fur seal was first seen as it subdued the penguin by resting its body on the latter (Fig. 1a). The penguin struggled by rapidly moving its flippers and attempting to stand up, but the attempts appeared feeble suggesting that the seal had subdued the penguin some time prior to the commencement of our observation. The penguin showed no outward signs of injury. The seal alternated between resting on the penguin (Fig. 1a) and bouts of pelvic thrusting copulatory behaviour (King 1983), attempting to penetrate the cloaca of the penguin (Fig. 1b). Although the visible penis of the seal provided evidence for its intention (Fig. 1b), it did not appear to be successful in insertion. This sequence of events continued for 45 min, with resting periods between copulatory attempts, lasting approximately 3 and 8 min, respectively. After 45 min, the seal abruptly moved into the sea and completely ignored the penguin until observations ceased approximately 1 h later.

The penguin remained where the seal had left it until observations ceased and made no attempt to stand or move away, although the head was held erect. Brief inspection of the cloaca of the penguin supported our observations that insertion did not take place, since the cloaca appeared normal, undamaged and presented no evidence of the presence of ejaculate. The penguin’s breathing was laboured but otherwise the animal appeared in good condition.

La culpa, claro, es del pingüino por ir provocando. ¿A quién se le ocurre ir por ahí andando como si llevase los pantalones por los tobillos? Luego pasa lo que pasa…