A photographer used his time in lockdown to capture an incredible image of two penguins hugging - and he want on to win awards.
One of the most touching images to emerge from 2020 wasn’t taken in a war zone or disaster area - it was snapped on a quiet pier in Australia, as reported by BBC News.
The photo, showing the penguins standing close together and gazing out at the city lights, quickly went viral. But as the image melted hearts across the globe, questions began to surface about what was really going on in that shot.
German photographer and marine scientist Tobias Baumgaertner took the now-iconic photo at St Kilda Pier in Melbourne.
The area is home to a colony of around 1,400 fairy penguins, the smallest penguin species in the world.
According to Baumgaertner, he was told by a volunteer that the two penguins had both lost their partners and had formed a new bond in their grief.
“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,” Baumgaertner wrote on Instagram.
“Since then they meet regularly, comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city.”
He spent three nights with the colony before capturing the moment.
“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,” he said. “But I got lucky during one beautiful moment.”
The photo ended up winning the 2020 Community Choice Award at Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photography Awards and was featured on over 20 websites and media outlets worldwide.
While the idea of two widowed penguins comforting each other was a moving narrative, Baumgaertner himself admitted that the story may not hold up under scrutiny. “This is very doubtful,” he said of the suggestion that the pair had both lost partners and found solace in one another.
The tale had come from a volunteer on site, and though it was told with sincerity, there was no scientific verification to support it.
In fact, both Baumgaertner and Earthcare’s research coordinator Flossy Sperring later expressed doubts about the widely accepted backstory, per SBS German.
“We could not possibly know (if) any of the information Tobias was told by the volunteer (is true),” Sperring explained.
“It is likely that it was all made up.” Instead, she suggested that the birds may be related, with one possibly being the parent of the other. “But we have no way of knowing this for sure,” she added.
Baumgaertner agreed: “We must be careful with anthropomorphising animals. I am all for it if it helps to raise awareness for the environment and animal welfare, but penguins are not humans.”
Initially reluctant to share the photo, Baumgaertner feared the image might attract too many visitors to the fragile colony.
“Social media is creating hot spots (for tourists) as it reaches millions of people,” he said. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and lockdowns began, he eventually decided to post it online - partly in response to global feelings of loneliness and isolation.
In the caption, he reflected on the pandemic and how it had separated loved ones. “This resonated with a lot of people,” he said.
What happened next took him by surprise. The post exploded. He began receiving hundreds of emails each day, eventually reading through about 4,500.
“Most of them were from people who had no one to talk to, who had mental (health) issues, who missed other people in their lives or who could not visit their loved ones during Covid-19,” he said.
“There were some beautiful stories,” Baumgaertner recalled. “There were people who met and got married because of his picture, others baked penguin cakes or took pictures of themselves embracing and watching a skyline.”
Despite the fact that the emotional backstory may not be accurate, Baumgaertner believes the image had a purpose. “The picture has done a lot of good for many people and it has somehow saved me,” he said.