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A pair of widowed female penguins have gone viral on social media this week, after they were photographed gazing at the sky above the city of Melbourne together.
The pictures in question were taken by Australian photographer Tobias Baumgaertner back in 2019, but now have a newfound significance for those people who are currently stuck indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
Take a look at this adorable footage of two penguins taking a stroll through an empty aquarium:
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Uploading a picture of the birds to his official Instagram account, Baumgaertner wrote: "During times like this the truly lucky ones are those that can be with the person/people they love most. I captured this moment about a year ago. These two Fairy penguins poised upon a rock overlooking the Melbourne skyline were standing there for hours, flipper in flipper, watching the sparkling lights of the skyline and ocean. [sic]"
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He continued: "A volunteer approached me and told me that the white one was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and apparently so did the younger male to the left. Since then they meet regularly comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city. I spend 3 full nights with this penguin colony until I was able to get this picture. [sic]"
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He added: "Between not being able or allowed to use any lights and the tiny penguins continuously moving, rubbing their flippers on each other’s backs and cleaning one another, it was really hard to get a shot but i got lucky during one beautiful moment. I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did. [sic]"
It's fair to say that the global coronavirus pandemic has had a profound environmental and ecological impact, and is provoking other people into considering the effect we humans have had on the natural world. For instance, this adorable clutch of baby sea turtles was recently photographed crawling on a deserted beach in Brazil.
