The ‘depraved’ sex life of PENGUINS: Scientific manuscript details how the animals engaged in shocking sexual activity including PROSTITUTION
- George Murray Levick made the findings on an Antarctic expedition in 1910
- Levick saw a kind of ‘prostitution’ in which stones were exchanged for females
- His manuscript was too shocking to publish then but a new book has revealed it
A British scientist found penguins engaging in ‘depraved’ sexual activity including rape and ‘prostitution’ more than 100 years ago, a new book has revealed.
George Murray Levick made the findings in 1910 but his manuscript was too shocking to publish in Edwardian Britain.
On his travels, he witnessed a kind of penguin ‘prostitution’ in which stones would be exchanged for female penguins.
His account has now been revealed in a new book, A Polar Affair by Lloyd Spencer Davis.
‘Depraved’: Penguins were found engaging in rape and prostitution more than 100 years ago by a British scientist (file photo)
Levick made his findings during the British Antarctic Expedition which began in 1910, led by explorer Robert Falcon Scott.
The new book’s publisher, Pegasus Books, says Levick was the ‘first man to study penguins up close’.
In his account, Levick described witnessing ‘gang rape’ and sexual abuse of chicks, according to The Sun which has seen a copy of the book.
Female penguins would be ‘pimped out’ with stones, but would sometimes run away with them after a courtship ritual, he said.
On top of that, Levick recorded instances of necrophilia – sometimes a year after one of the birds had died.
According to the book, Levick wrote his findings in Greek because they were too shocking to be read by the uneducated public.
Discussing his findings, he blamed what he called the penguins’ astonishing depravity’ on ‘hooligan males’.
‘Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close,’ the book’s publisher says.
‘His findings were so shocking to [Edwardian] morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history.
‘A century later, Lloyd Spencer Davis rediscovers Levick and his findings during the course of his own scientific adventures in Antarctica.’
New book: Levick’s account of penguin behaviour has now been revealed in A Polar Affair by Lloyd Spencer Davis (the cover of which is pictured right)
Levick studied Adelie penguins, which are native to Antarctica and named after a French explorer’s wife.
Experts say that male Adelie penguins usually attract females by building ‘the biggest and best nest’.
The birds are the smallest species of penguin, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Nonetheless, they have been known to take on seals and other potential predators or even attack humans with their flippers.
Davis also studies Adelie penguins and was celebrated for his book The Plight of the Penguin in 2002.
He has previously written about same-sex behaviour among Antarctic penguins, which is well documented.
Same-sex penguin couples have previously been known to rear younglings at zoos including in Berlin and New York.
Unlike many mammal species, male and female penguins take on the same parenting roles, and share parental duties 50-50.
‘There is no real difference when it comes to breeding behaviours between males and females,’ a Sea Life expert said last year.
Therefore it ‘is common to have male-male or female-female showing courtship and breeding behaviour.’