Judging by the steady stream of tweets, nature lovers never knew they needed gay albatross content so badly.
But gay albatross content is what they received after the BBC nature program Frozen Planet II aired its latest episode on Sunday.
With pitch-perfect narration from the incomparable David Attenborough, the show profiled the mating habits of the Antipodean wandering albatross.
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The species mates for life, and the process of finding a partner can take years. Frozen Planet II honed in one one mature male’s search for love on a small island.
While attempting to win a female’s favor, the albatross was challenged by another male. The female was not about it, and flew off.
“It seems that this is not going to be his year after all,” Attenborough said.
But then the cameras captured a plot twist: the male found a second potential partner — another male this time — and started the complex mating ritual over again.
It got pretty cute:
Unfortunately, there’s a dark side to this love story. Attenborough explains that the females feed on the north end of the island, where industrial fishing fleets are rapidly killing them off.
That results in many more males than females, and explains why same-sex partnerships are becoming increasingly common.
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“A same-sex partnership like this may bring no survival advantage, but is apparently preferable to a life alone,” Attenborough remarked.
That being said, viewers were instantly charmed by the sweet display of same-sex affection:
the gay albatross completely broke me on frozen planet 2!!!
— h (@h__aych) October 3, 2022
I’m watching frozen planet 2 and there are GAY albatrosses omg
— liv (@catboycatilina) October 2, 2022
david attenborough says gay rights for albatrosses #FrozenPlanet
— Olivia (@oIivianumbers) October 2, 2022
Not me bursting into tears at the gay albatrosses, so precious ??? #FrozenPlanet
— Tom B. Rees (@TomBenjaminRees) October 2, 2022
OMG gay albatrosses! ???? #FrozenPlanet
— Sue Copsey/Olivia Hayfield ?? (@suecopsey) October 2, 2022
Pretty pissed off that even gay albatrosses can find a partner for life, and here’s me – 38 and single! ???? #FrozenPlanet2 #FrozenPlanet #gay #gayuk #ukgay
— Tom ?? (@thomasoxley) October 2, 2022
The gay albatrosses with their little pudding bowl haircuts have made my Sunday night complete
#FrozenPlanet— Michelle (@shells_twits) October 2, 2022
Cannot cope with the adorable gay birds on frozen planet, choosing a life together than a life alone?? #FrozenPlanet
— c l a i r e ? (@thatsmypeachx) October 2, 2022
Oh those gay albatross are going to upset just the right people #FrozenPlanet
— Andy G (@BornAgainBantam) October 2, 2022
gjg64
OK this is becoming a Monty Python skit. First gay penguins and now gay albatross/albatrosses/albatri?
Python is famous for the exploding Penguin on top of the TV set.
But they also had John Cleese selling Albatross instead of ice cream at the movie theater.
Joshooeerr
A Python skit? Why?! Regular same-sex couplings have now been extremely well documented across hundreds of species, so it should no longer be surprising to anyone. The problem for a long time was that naturalists who recorded same-sex pairings for documentaries never included the footage, due to a range of prejudices. Sometimes they assumed they’d stumbled on some rare anomaly, and decided it wasn’t representative. Sometimes they felt it was something to be suppressed purely due to their human homophobic sentiments. Now at last same-sex pairings across he animal world are being recognised by documentarians like Attenborough.
bachy
The clip was beautiful, and moving.
SDR94103
we are everywhere.
ingyaom
Hw will they call this “unnatural”?