Depraved penguin sex shocks polar explorers
11th July 2012
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Observations taken over a century ago by a member of Captain Scott’s polar team are finally being made public.
Remarks noted, including ‘sexual coercion’ between penguins recorded by George Murray Levick, were removed from official records for being too shocking - although now the biological reasons behind the ‘depraved’ acts offer some explanation.
Enthusiastic biologist Mr Levick was the medical officer on Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910. He was the first to stay for the whole breeding season of a colony on Cape Adare, a pioneer in the study of penguins.
Back then some of the acts were too immoral for the Edwardian doctor; he was shocked by routines he described as ‘depraved’ sexual acts of ‘hooligan’ males mating with dead females. Levick even went so far as to record the ‘perverted’ activities in Greek in his notebook.
Returning to Britain, he did attempt to publish a paper called ‘The Natural History of the Adelie Penguin’ - but it was too much for straightlaced Victorian times.
Douglas Russell, curator of eggs and nests at the Natural History Museum said: “He submitted this extraordinary and graphic account of sexual behaviour of the Adelie penguins, which the academic world of the post-Edwardian era found a little too difficult to publish.”
Only 100 copies of the graphic account were circulated to a small group of scientists; the official paper removed any trace of the sexual behaviour section.
Remarks noted, including ‘sexual coercion’ between penguins recorded by George Murray Levick, were removed from official records for being too shocking - although now the biological reasons behind the ‘depraved’ acts offer some explanation.
Enthusiastic biologist Mr Levick was the medical officer on Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910. He was the first to stay for the whole breeding season of a colony on Cape Adare, a pioneer in the study of penguins.
Back then some of the acts were too immoral for the Edwardian doctor; he was shocked by routines he described as ‘depraved’ sexual acts of ‘hooligan’ males mating with dead females. Levick even went so far as to record the ‘perverted’ activities in Greek in his notebook.
Returning to Britain, he did attempt to publish a paper called ‘The Natural History of the Adelie Penguin’ - but it was too much for straightlaced Victorian times.
Douglas Russell, curator of eggs and nests at the Natural History Museum said: “He submitted this extraordinary and graphic account of sexual behaviour of the Adelie penguins, which the academic world of the post-Edwardian era found a little too difficult to publish.”
Only 100 copies of the graphic account were circulated to a small group of scientists; the official paper removed any trace of the sexual behaviour section.
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