Viral photo of 'widowed' penguins comforting each other bags photography award

A heart-warming picture of two penguins hugging each other has bagged the photographer the top prize at the Ocean Photograph Awards 2020.

Shot by Tobias Baumgaertner, this endearing photo shows two fairy penguins embracing each other while looking at the skyline ahead. “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,” he wrote on Instagram.

Originally posted in March, Baumgaertner had written that a volunteer approached him and told him that the white penguin was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and apparently, so did the younger male penguin on the left.

"Since then they meet regularly comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city. I spend 3 full nights with this penguin colony until I was able to get this picture," he wrote on his Instagram.

The photo that made Baumgaertner win in the Community Choice Award category of the Oceanographic Magazine honours has thence been making rounds on all social media platforms - not because of the sheer cuteness, but because of its dewy-eyed backstory.

However, on World Penguin Day, Baumgaertner revealed the rather tender story of the two widowed penguins had been romanticised. He said that he never intended it to be 'scientifically accurate' and that he has been 'advised by the scientific community that anthropomorphising animals can have a negative influence on them.'

"It was never intended to be scientifically accurate as it was quite obviously romanticized by adding my personal feelings of being separated from and longing for the one I can’t live without. I wrote these words from the bottom of my heart and never expected so many people to connect with them. Like with anything else in life too much of one thing has the potential to become dangerous and while we don’t know what goes on in these little penguins I’ve been advised by the scientific community that anthropomorphizing animals can have a negative influence on them as it “can... lead to inappropriate behaviours towards wild animals”. This is especially the case for animals living in such close proximity to the city as they are already dealing with various challenges. I have further been advised that these two could be related, ...the exact relation of these two is at this point probably hard to figure out, but I am happy to hear that if they are not friends then they might at least be family," he wrote.

Nevertheless, the love Tobias Baumgaertner's pictures garnered from viewers speaks volumes on the authenticity of the young photographer and his pictures offer an emotive force that is beyond words.

(Photo used in the share: Tobias Baumgaertner)