A celebrated Australian penguin, Sphen, known for raising chicks as part of an unlikely same-sex couple, has died, according to a statement by Sydney’s Sealife Aquarium on Thursday, August 22.
Male gentoo penguins Sphen and Magic first caught the attention of zookeepers and later the world in 2018 when they built a nest of pebbles together. The pair was eventually given live eggs from other penguin couples to incubate, resulting in the hatching of their first chick, Sphengic, in 2018, followed by Clancy two years later.
Sealife Aquarium revealed that Sphen, the older partner in the “same-sex” penguin “power couple,” passed away just shy of his 12th birthday, which is considered a long life for penguins in captivity.

Sphen and Magic quickly became gay icons in Australia and beyond, inspiring a float at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade and even being featured in the Netflix sitcom Atypical. However, the pair also faced criticism, with some conservative voices accusing those celebrating the penguins of pushing a political agenda.
Unlike many mammal species, both male and female penguins equally share parental duties. Same-sex penguin couples, involving both males and females, are not uncommon, although they tend to be short-lived in the wild.
The phenomenon of same-sex penguin couples adopting eggs in captivity is not unique to Sphen and Magic. Several zoos worldwide have reported similar cases. In 2009, two male penguins, Z and Vielpunkt, successfully hatched and reared a chick rejected by its heterosexual parents at a zoo in Berlin. Before them, Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at a zoo in New York, were observed frequently attempting to mate with each other.