LONDON It is a story of epic journeys and enduring love. A pair of Magellanic penguins has been found to be among the most faithful of couples in the animal kingdom.
During their 16-year relationship, they have spent long periods apart and each taken solo trips totalling 320,000 kilometres.
Yet, despite their long-distance relationship, each year the penguins have returned to the same nest, and each other, to produce a new brood of chicks.
Now they are growing old together the birds normally die about 20 years after they start breeding.
Biologists have expressed surprise at the endurance of the birds relationship, as most Magellanic penguin pairings are cut short far sooner.
In some cases, one partner dies during their long sea journeys. Other pairings end in divorce: if a couple fail to rear chicks successfully during a breeding season, they will each find new partners the following year. The longest relationships previously seen by researchers were between five and 10 years.
