Silo

Silo was a world-famous male chinstrap penguin in New York City’s Central Park Zoo, who, along with his male partner Roy, became known as the “gay penguins” after being featured in a New York Times article in 2004.

Hatched in 1987, Silo met Roy at the Central Park Zoo in 1998, and the two took to each other almost immediately. Zookeepers and visitors alike noticed how smitten the birds were, as they engaged in mating rituals with one another such as entwining their necks and squawking mating calls. The following year, the couple attempted to hatch a rock as though it were an egg, which inspired zookeepers to give them first a dummy egg, and then an actual penguin egg that another couple was unable to hatch.

Silo and Roy successfully incubated the egg and hatched a female chick that was named Tango, who went on to pair with another female penguin called Tanuzi. The story captured the hearts of millions across the world.

Not long after their initial media coverage propelled them to fame, Silo and Roy were ousted from their nest by a more aggressive pair of penguins in May 2004 and subsequently began to drift apart. It seemed as though their story was at an end, but, as it turned out, the penguins weren’t both gay.

Roy went on to find another male partner named Blue. Silo, however, ended up bonding with a female penguin named Scrappy, demonstrating that he was, in fact, bisexual. Given how widespread bisexuality is in nature, and how rare exclusive homosexuality is among non-human animals, it is not surprising that one of the “gay penguins” was actually a bi penguin.

Silo and Roy’s story made an outsized splash in American culture. It inspired the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, which was a Lambda Literary Award finalist that year. According to the American Library Association, And Tango Makes Three became one of the most banned children’s books in the United States over its depiction of a same-sex relationship. Nevertheless, it became a bestseller. Silo and Roy have also been featured in several theatrical productions, such as the 2011 play Birds of a Feather and the 2011 play-ballet version of And Then Came Tango. 

The whole saga also became entangled in the American culture wars of the 2000s, in which same-sex marriage — and anything that had gay or bi themes — featured prominently. It ruffled the feathers of some Christian conservatives, including groups like Focus on the Family. Also, it emboldened many in the LGBT community to criticize the attempts of other zoos to forcibly separate same-sex animal couples.

Roy and Tango have both died in the years since their story broke in 2004. Astonishingly, as of 2018, Silo was still reportedly alive and had fathered a biological chick of his own. His current status is unknown, but given that the life expectancy of chinstrap penguins is 20–22 years for those in captivity, Silo has likely passed away as a very old bisexual penguin.

Silo and Roy became a media sensation for the novelty of their relationship during an era in which the public was still getting used to the gradual normalization of same-sex relationships, but they were by no means outliers. Multiple zoos around the world have had subsequent same-sex penguin couples of their own. In 2009, two male Humboldt penguins in a German zoo named Z and Vielpunkt hatched an egg together and raised the chick. In 2011, a male same-sex penguin couple in a Chinese zoo took over raising a chick. In 2014, two male chinstrap penguins, Jumbs and Kermit, adopted an abandoned egg in the Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent, UK. Similarly, two male Gentoo penguins hatched and raised an egg at Sealife Sydney in Australia. And two additional same-sex couples at New York’s Central Park Zoo, males Squak and Milo, and females Georgey and Mickey, have been documented conducting courtship behavior toward one another.