LightBears

As anyone who has had the good fortune of being befriended by an animal — a cat, dog, horse, goat, sheep, cow, or others — knows, the affection and loyalty of a connection between the animal and a human can not easily be expressed in words, although many have tried. All one has to do is look throughout a large compendium of poems and other such items to see that!

But, what about comfort and caring among animals, when no humans are present? We have evidence that animals play (National Geographic, many years ago, showed polar bears playing with the landing lights on an airstrip in Alaska) and, of course, there is the mating bond and the bond among a parent and their young.

Empathy and comfort, as well as overt compassion among animals, is another matter.

Here we have a pair of fairy penguins each of whom, according to the article, were widowed, comforting one another:

Two widowed fairy penguins looking over the Melbourne skyline.

The lighter penguin is an elderly female whose partner died this year. The darker one is a younger male who lost his partner two years ago. Biologists have followed them as they meet every night to comfort each other. They stand for hours together watching the lights.

Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner captured these images of two widowed fairy penguins looking over the Melbourne skyline. It has won an award in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards 2020.