Kyoto Aquarium’s 'relationship chart' tracks dramatic love triangles of penguins and it's a soap opera alright

When most visitors walk into the Kyoto Aquarium, they don't expect to find a massive, tangled map detailing the scandalous "divorces", unrequited crushes, and decade-long relationships of the resident penguins. But that’s exactly what’s on display, and it’s anything but orderly. The aquarium's 2026 relationship chart is doing rounds all over the internet, proving that the avian drama is every bit as messy as any prime-time soap opera, as highlighted in a post by @DoctorLemma on April 12.

The chart serves as a colorful, chaotic roadmap to the dozens of Cape penguins. Red hearts mean couples, and blue indicates broken-up individuals. Meanwhile, purple lines with question marks mean it's complicated. Yellow means friendship, and green means enemies. While we'd be lying if we didn't attest that this is just great drama, the data is actually a meticulously updated record maintained by the keepers of Kyoto Aquarium and Sumida Aquarium, who witness these interactions daily. 

That said, the main takeaway from this year's data is the sheer complexity of the bonds. For example, one female penguin has reportedly ended six relationships in just a year. Although that alone is quite something, what makes it even more hilarious is the comment under her photo, which, when translated from Japanese, reads as "basically demonic." However, that's not all. Another penguin has been caught dating someone 17 years older than him, who also turns out to be his great aunt. 

What makes this phenomenon resonate so deeply online is how each penguin is treated as an individual with a distinct personality. "We’d like more people to know that penguins are like us humans; each of them has individuality and they live in various relationships," Shoko Okuda, a spokeswoman of ORIX Group, told CNN Travel in an interview in 2019. Nonetheless, this has not only helped Kyoto Aquarium to draw in more visitors than ever before, but also helped raise awareness among the masses, albeit through humor.

While the chart is undeniably cute and fun to look at, it also challenges the long-held idea that penguins mate for life. A long-term study found that about 1 in 4 penguin pairs (25%) change partners each year, contradicting the idea of lifelong pairing. In another 13-year study of nearly 1,000 penguin pairs, researchers recorded around 250 "penguin divorces," showing partner switching is fairly common.

Nonetheless, people seem to be swooning over the penguin relationship chart, and rightfully so. "This is the best thing I’ve seen so far this year," @dalpop wrote. "They have the opportunity here to create the greatest reality TV show ever," @tiffUGHnee added. At the same time, @KatrinePresco1 suggested, "All zoos and aquariums should do this. It really changes your perspective on penguins. Otherwise, they just look like they're shuffling around randomly in the habitat." 

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