Love in a cold climate goes global

It’s not the most conventional love shack, but then Colin is not your average Romeo.

For a start, he waddles.

But kudos to the penguin for innovative thinking. After all, Antarctica isn’t known for warm and cosy romantic dates by a blazing fire.

The shrewd Ade´lie penguin, nicknamed Colin by staff, recently wandered into Scott Base amid heavy machinery, which was being used for snow clearing. Strict environmental and wildlife rules in Antarctica meant all machinery had to stop.

But Colin didn’t know he had already been upstaged by a traffic-stopping hen (female penguin).

Provocatively hobbling her way to a stationary digger, the mysterious femme fatale hopped inside a digger bucket with a flirtatious flick of her beak.

Colin followed, but what unfolded inside the rusty bucket remains to be seen – although their initial romance has caught the world’s attention.

Caught on camera and shared by project manager Matthew Jordan, the pair’s entente has been viewed 5.7 million times on social media platform Tiktok in two days.

Now international media are clamouring to share the plucky duo’s budding romance, with the attention surprising Jordan who initially only uploaded the clip to free up space on his phone.

A keen advocate for Antarctica and its wildlife, Jordan has promised to keep uploading clips if it means publicising the important scientific work being undertaken on the continent, including important research into climate change.

Christchurch-based Jordan works for Antarctica New Zealand and travels most summers to the continent.

Stray penguins usually make their way to base camp during February and March when they are hungry, he said.

It’s not unusual for other countries’ base camps to have penguins hopping on equipment, such as seen in a United Kingdom video that circulated not long before Jordan’s. In that video the male penguin was called Colin, and now viewers have nicknamed the male penguin caught on his clip Colin as well.

‘‘I guess all digger-loving penguins will be called Colin from now on,’’ Jordan laughs.

And as for the unlikely saga of a bucket, Colin and a new lady love?

‘‘Is this how penguin chicks are made?’’ he quips. ‘‘Stay tuned!’’