Sphen, Penguin Whose Gay Love Story Earned Global Fame, Dies

Sphen, a male gentoo penguin whose enduring partnership with another male penguin in the colony led them to become international queer icons, has died, according to the Sydney aquarium that housed them. He was 11.

The penguin died earlier this month after his health deteriorated, the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium team said in an email. The aquarium did not give additional information on his ailment but said that it made the difficult decision to euthanize Sphen, “easing him of any pain or discomfort.”

For Sphen and Magic, a summer meet cute in Sydney sparked their six-year partnership. Sphen, three years older, had come from SeaWorld, while Magic was born in an aquarium in Melbourne. In a colony of young, flirty penguins at Sea Life, the two had eyes only for each other: bowing, singing and bringing each other pebbles for a potential future nest, according to penguin keepers. Young gentoo penguins can take some time to choose their partners, but Sphen and Magic did not waste any.

”They weren’t interested in other birds in the colony,” Tish Hannan, the head of penguin supervision at the aquarium, said in an interview in 2019. “They’ve chosen each other. That’s it. They’re bonded now.”

The penguin keepers embraced their partnership and gave them a dummy egg to foster. They were later given a real egg after a heterosexual penguin couple appeared to be neglecting their parenting duties. Sphen and Magic, who had achieved relative stability with their big nest, diligently nurtured their bundle of joy, swapping shifts to incubate the egg and keep it warm. They hatched a chick, Sphengic, now called Lara, in 2018 and paired up again in 2020 to hatch Clancy.

Their courtship, which came soon after Australia legalized gay marriage in a protracted battle that brought up personal, religious and political tensions, offered a symbol of optimism for the queer community and its supporters. Their likenesses were memorialized on floats at Pride celebrations in Sydney, and their story was retold in documentaries. They were even featured in an episode of the Netflix coming-of-age series “Atypical.” In 2023, teachers in New South Wales said that their story would become a resource for primary school curriculums as part of a unit on family and relationships.

The couple’s fame drew local and international tourists, who watched them waddle around their home in the aquarium on Sydney’s docks. Unusually for gentoo penguin couples, the aquarium said, the pair were so close they even spent time together outside of breeding season. After spending more than half his life with his partner, Magic will now face his first breeding season without Sphen, said Richard Dilly, general manager at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium.

“The loss of Sphen is heartbreaking to the penguin colony, the team and everyone who has been inspired or positively impacted by Sphen and Magic’s story,” he said.

To help him mourn the loss, the aquarium said that it took Magic, who turns 9 this year, to see Sphen after he died. He started singing. The rest of the colony joined in.