These Adelie Penguins looks rather pure and innocent but they provide a rare example of prostitution in the animal world. Adelie Penguins build a nest of pebbles that raises the egg off the frozen or watery ground. But pebbles are in short supply so they often steal them from neighbours. But some male Adelie Penguins don't have a mate as such. They simply guard a pile of pebbles on the edge of the colony. Passing females in search of pebbles will make themselves available for mating, then will collect a pebble afterwards, in payment for services rendered. They will then return to their “mate” guarding the nest, who is none the wiser. Sometimes females just flirt and tease the males, then take a pebble for their troubles anyway.
The name comes from Adelie Land, which in turn comes from the name of the wife of the French explorer Jules Dumont D'Urville, who discovered both Adelie Land, and these penguins back in 1840. Adelie land is a French-claimed "wedge" stretching right down to the South Pole, but on the opposite side of Antarctica to the peninsula. It was Adelie Land where the 2005 film March of the Penguins was filmed but I photographed these on Paulet Island near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
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