Photographer Captures Moment Two Widowed Penguins Gaze At The Melbourne Night Sky Together
A picture of two widowed penguins snuggling together while gazing at the Melbourne night sky has melted the hearts of many people around the globe.
Photographer Tobias Baumgartner captured the heartfelt moment in Saint Kilda, Melbourne back in 2019, but only posted the photos on Instagram.
After the pictures were also posted on Twitter, they quickly went viral.
“Couldn’t stop thinking about these penguins enjoying the Melbourne skyline together so i found the original photographer and apparently they’re BOTH WIDOWED i can’t handle it,” wrote Matt, a person who runs two popular dog Twitter accounts.
couldn’t stop thinking about these penguins enjoying the Melbourne skyline together so i found the original photographer and apparently they’re BOTH WIDOWED i can’t handle it pic.twitter.com/gGgPVcOn9G
— matt (@dogfather) April 19, 2020
The tweet has so far been shared nearly 50,000 times and has received more than 155,000 likes.
“This is too beautiful for words,” said one commenter.
Another person wrote:
“I’m not crying, you’re crying.”
Regarding the penguin photos, Tobias 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. 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.”
Tobias went on to say that he spent three whole nights with the colony of penguins before snapping the touching photos.
“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,” he said.
Some days later, Tobias shared one more picture of the penguin couple, with a little more details about them.
“The way that these two lovebirds were caring for one another stood out from the entire colony,” Tobias said.
While all the other penguins were sleeping or running around, those two seemed to just stand there and enjoy every second they had together, holding each other in their flippers and talking about penguin stuff.
Pain has brought them together. I guess sometimes you find love when you least expect it. It’s a privilege to truly love someone, paradisiacal when they love you back.”
If you wish to see more amazing wildlife photos you can head to Tobias’ Instagram page, which are also available as prints if you request them by private message or email.
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