This Photo Of Two Widowed Penguins Consoling Each Other While Enjoying The View Is Too Much!

Penguins are the cutest animal in existence, right?

If not the cutest animal then they’re definitely the cutest flightless birds and we will fight anyone who says otherwise (looking at you, Emu Society).

So for everyone on team penguin, you have to see this picture from Aussie photographer Tobias Baumgaertner.

The photo shows two penguins standing next to each other, one with their flipper around the other while gazing over the Melbourne skyline at night.

According to Baumgaertner, the fairy penguins had both lost their partners, and they just stood there, flipper in flipper for hours.

FOR HOURS!

View this post on Instagram

During times like this the truly lucky ones are those that can be with the person/people they love most. I captured this moment about a year ago. 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. 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. 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. 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 but i got lucky during one beautiful moment. I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did. #lovewillalwayswin • 📸 @tobiasvisuals •Shot on Nikon Z6, Nikkor 50mm 1.4, ISO 8000, 50mm, f/1.4, 1/60 sec

A post shared by Tobias Baumgaertner (@tobiasvisuals) on Mar 25, 2020 at 4:16pm PDT

The photo was taken in 2019, but the photographer just recently posted Part 2 of the image set to his Instagram.

Apparently, after the pair both lost their partners they had been meeting regularly to console each other and OUR HEARTS CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE.

And while fairy penguins don’t mate with the same partner for life, like some other penguin species, they are very social birds and they do grieve.

Our thoughts are with you both, little penguins.