Same-sex albatross love story warms the internet’s heart

TL;DR

On Sunday, Frozen Planet II, the popular BBC wildlife series, took viewers to the remote Antipodes Islands, a tiny volcanic chain 800 miles southwest of New Zealand, where host David Attenborough introduced viewers to a 14 year-old male Antipodean albatross on the lookout for love.With a pink beak, pink wide-webbed feet, and small black eyes, the birds are already adorable before the mating rituals begin.“In spring,” Attenborough intones, “the longer days turn every speck of land into a potential breeding ground.”We meet the 14 year-old as he calls out to a female in flight, who lands just feet away.“The finale is the great decider: synchronized wing spreading,” he continues, but then another male appears, skulking in and spreading his own wide wings, accompanied by a delirious scream.“As a result, the female albatross here is declining fast.”Males are left with fewer potential female partners, then, and those that don’t pair up with their smaller, darker members of the opposite sex can fly solo or join with another male in similar circumstances."

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