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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Science
Donna Lu Science writer

Consciously uncoupling: what drives rates of animal divorce?

A pair of wandering albatross
Among birds, the poster child for monogamy is the wandering albatross, which can live up to 50 years and usually mates for life. Photograph: Otto Whitehead

In 2011 a shock celebrity break-up garnered headlines around the world – not the separation of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, nor Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, but the sudden, inexplicable rupture between Bibi and Poldi, two 115-year-old Galápagos tortoises at Happ reptile zoo in Austria.

After nearly a century as a couple, the female, Bibi, had had enough: one day, she bit a chunk off Poldi’s shell, drawing blood, and continued to attack him until zoo staff moved him to a separate enclosure.

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