Let's talk about gay penguins: Munich zoo joins Pride week

Organisers of this year's Gay Pride week in Munich have a group of rar wild partners -- penguins, giraffes and lions at city zoo where tours are being run about same-sex love in animal kingdom.

Munich zoo has joined Pride week with an unusual look into intimate lives of all creatures great and small, seeking to boost tolerance among humans.

"It is important for us to talk about" homosexuality in animal kingdom and show that same-sex love has its place in Nature, said Munich zoo spokesman Dennis Spaeth.

"Because unfortunately in Germany we see more and more people from reactionary right attacking LGBTQI rights." 

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While even mostly-Catholic Bavaria has grown more accepting and lawmakers legalised gay marri in 2017, n-heterosexuals are sometimes still a target for violence.

Police recorded 91 attacks based on victim's sexual orientation last year.

In safe confines of zoo, first stop on Pride tour is giraffes. blotchy animals spare visitors only occasional curious glances from behind ir long eyelashes as y enjoy a meal of hay.

"Giraffes are bisexual. In some groups, 90 percent of acts observed are in fact homosexual in nature," explained biologist Guenter Strauss.

A few enclosures down, re is little to distinguish a male-male couple of black-faced Humboldt penguins squatting toger from or, mixed pairs.

That is until guide points out that with egg to care for, pair has taken to brooding a rock inste.

This is one-off fling, as "penguins conduct homosexual relationships that can last a whole lifetime, something very rare in animal kingdom," said Strauss.

In fact, hundreds of animal species, from elephants to snakes and birds, display homosexual behaviour.

But unlike most humans, sexual preference of our four-legged or feared friends is often quite fluid.

"Among people, we grow up with a specific sexual orientation. That's often t true for animals," said Strauss.

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"y are in fact bisexual. y opt certain sexual behaviour at specific moments." One case in point are lions, and zoo's male big cat greets group with a loud roar.

"Servus!" responded Strauss in a regional greeting redolent of tritional, conservative Bavarian culture.

"Eight percent of sex acts among lions are homosexual. As for lionesses, y only show lesbian behaviour when y're kept in captivity," he explained.

While same-sex love among animals is commonplace, topic was long a taboo for scientists of more hidebound eras.

"On one expedition to South Pole at start of 20th century, a doctor saw males (penguins) copulating -- but he left out ps dealing with behaviour when he published results of his research," Strauss recounted.

Considered unpalatable back n, valuable ps were only rediscovered "eight or nine years ago" in a library in Britain, he ded.

Times have changed since n.

London Zoo, for its contribution to Pride week, mounted a banner above its penguin beach, declaring: "Some penguins are gay. Get over it," a d to a human anti-homophobic campaign.