'Frozen Planet' viewers emotional over same-sex albatross romance

Katie Archer
Two male albatrosses moved Frozen Planet viewers with their love story. (BBC)
Two male albatrosses moved Frozen Planet viewers with their love story. (BBC)

Frozen Planet II has left viewers feeling warm and emotional over a scene about a same-sex albatross couple finding a lifelong partnership.

The BBC One nature series from Sir David Attenborough followed the mating rituals of Antipodean wandering albatrosses in the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic.

Read more: Frozen Planet viewers 'can't deal with' scenes of bear killing ox cubs

One 14-year-old male albatross looked doomed to be unlucky in love when he approached a female bird in his search for a life partner, but was ousted by a number of other males swooping in and showing off their own superior wingspans as a way of proving their worth.

The albatrosses looked to have found a lifelong mate. (BBC)
The albatrosses looked to have found a lifelong mate. (BBC)

The overwhelmed female flew away and Sir David explained that the albatross community was facing a crisis, with three times as many male birds as females.

But the search for love was not over for the 14-year-old male, as another of the male albatrosses began a courting ritual with him and he responded well, looking to have found his mate for life.

It was a moving scene for viewers, with one person tweeting: "Gay Albatross couple stealing my heart on frozen planet. Fair play."

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Someone else wrote: "NOT ME CRYING AT FROZEN PLANET 2 BECAUSE OF THE ALBATROSS SAME SEX COUPLE AS THEY DONT WANNA BE ON THEIR OWN."

Another viewer added: "The gay albatross completely broke me on frozen planet 2!!!"

The male albatrosses outnumber the females by three to one. (BBC)
The male albatrosses outnumber the females by three to one. (BBC)

Someone else tweeted: "Cannot cope with the adorable gay birds on frozen planet, choosing a life together than a life alone."

Another person commented: "I am in love with the gay albatrosses and wish them all the happiness in the world."

Frozen Planet viewers were also captivated by another scene of a more ruthless nature - orcas hunting a seal as a pack, despite it not being their usual prey.

The orcas swam as a group under a block of ice that the seal was lying on, using their collective power to break the ice up and cause a wave to wash the seal into the sea - the first time that sort of hunt had been captured on camera.

One viewer tweeted: "Ive said it before, I'll say it again..... Orcas and their intelligence and strategy is fecking terrifying!"

Watch: Young polar bears explore Arctic as friends in Frozen Planet II

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