A British influencer has been criticised for taking selfies with penguins having sex in the background.
Steph Elswood – who posts about health, food, and fitness – uploaded the picture on her Instagram where she has 240,000 followers.
The Instagram and YouTube personality was visiting Boulders Beach in South Africa – one of Cape Town’s most visited beaches where you can get close to African Penguins.
After Steph spent 10 minutes trying to get the perfect shot, she uploaded two images with the penguins being intimate in the background.
The second image zoomed into the penguins’ activity.
She wrote on the post: ‘This is my favourite selfie of all time… but please swipe to the next picture. I was there for about 10 minutes trying to get a good pic next to my new pals Penny and Guin and THEY WERE HAVING SEX THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!
‘I was being too self-absorbed to notice!!! HAHAHA OOPS. (There’s also some cute photos in the swipe too that don’t involve penguin porn).
‘It’s been an amazing last day adventuring around Cape Town and I’ve loved every minute of our experience here!’
But Steph quickly updated the post, apologising for the photos as it was pointed out that penguins in the area are under a lot of stress due to tourists getting too close.
The post has received more than 12,000 likes and while most praised it, some criticised Steph for the photo op.
One person wrote: ‘Absolut no go!! sorrry, but I can’t understand how you ( or anybody ) even get the idea of running behind wild animals! – and certainly not for a photo.’
Steph revealed that South African locals had also directly messaged her to explain their concerns.
We spoke to Steph who told Metro.co.uk: ‘I found it very difficult reading the comments about me supposedly putting the penguins under stress.
‘I was very cautious throughout my entire experience at boulders beach. I am an animal lover/vegan and would never want to cause them any harm.
‘I spoke to locals on my DMs about the stress that the penguins are under from tourists that might not have been as careful/cautious as I was.
‘They are asking for signs and changes to be made at the beach to stop this.
‘Also as I saw my post was getting a lot of traction, I changed my caption to share the importance of being extra careful when approaching the wild animals with the hope that it would encourage future visitors to be more mindful!
‘I also wanted to apologise to the South African residents that are very protective of their wildlife.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/29/influencer-apologises-for-selfie-with-penguins-having-sex-12146989/
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