A photographer took an amazing picture of two penguins cuddling when he was stuck at home. He went on to win accolades for it.
BBC News says that one of the most moving pictures from 2020 wasn’t shot in a war zone or catastrophe area. It was captured on a peaceful pier in Australia.
The picture of the penguins standing close together and looking at the city lights rapidly became popular. But when the picture touched people’s hearts all across the world, people started to wonder what was really going on in that shot.
Tobias Baumgaertner, a German photographer and marine biologist, took the famous picture near St Kilda Pier in Melbourne.
There are about 1,400 fairy penguins living in the area. They are the tiniest type of penguin in the world.
Baumgaertner says that a volunteer told him that the two penguins had lost their spouses and had created a new relationship because they were sad.
Baumgaertner said on Instagram that a volunteer came up to him and told him that the white one was an old lady who had lost her partner. The younger male on the left had also lost his partner.
Since then, they have been meeting often to console each other and stand together for hours watching the lights of the adjacent metropolis dance.
Before taking the picture, he spent three nights with the colony.
He claimed that because the tiny penguins were constantly moving, washing one another, and rubbing their flippers on each other’s backs, it was very difficult to get a shot. But there was a lovely moment when I was fortunate.
The picture won the 2020 Community Choice Award at Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards and was shown on more than 20 websites and media sources around the world.
Baumgaertner himself said that the story of two widowed penguins comforting each other may not hold up under investigation, even though it was a touching story. He said that the idea that the two of them had both lost lovers and found comfort in each other was “very doubtful.”
The story came from a volunteer on site, and even though it was delivered with honesty, there was no scientific proof to back it up.
According to SBS German, both Baumgaertner and Earthcare’s research coordinator Flossy Sperring later said they weren’t sure about the widely recognized history.
Sperring said, “We can’t possibly know if any of the information Tobias was given by the volunteer is true.”
It seems likely that everything was made up. Instead, she said that the birds might be linked and that one might be the parent of the other. She went on to say that we can’t be sure about this, though.
Baumgaertner agreed that we need to be careful when we treat animals like people. If it helps people care more about the environment and animal welfare, I’m all for it. But penguins are not people.
Baumgaertner didn’t want to post the photo at first because he thought it may bring too many people to the endangered colony.
He claimed that social media is making places popular with tourists since it reaches millions of people. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and lockdowns started, he finally decided to share it online. This was partially because people all over the world were feeling lonely and alone.
He thought about the pandemic and how it had kept loved ones apart in the caption. He stated this struck a chord with a lot of people.
He was shocked by what happened next. The post blew up. He started getting hundreds of emails per day and ended up reading roughly 4,500 of them.
He added that most of them were from people who didn’t have anyone to talk to, had mental health problems, missed other people in their lives, or couldn’t see their loved ones during Covid-19.
Baumgaertner remembered some great stories. Some people met and were married because of his picture, while others made penguin cakes or snapped pictures of themselves hugging and looking at the skyline.
Baumgaertner thinks the picture had a function, even though the emotional backstory may not be true. He said the picture has helped a lot of people and perhaps saved him.