Touching photographs of two "widowed" penguins comforting each other won the prestigious Photography Award

The touching photo, which features two widower penguins comforting each other in Australia, perfectly reminds people of the primal need for physical intimacy, was taken by Tobias Baumgaertner in Melbourne and won the Ocean Photography Award from Oceanographic Magazine.

The photo also won the Community Choice Award, which Tobias posted on social media in March and garnered nearly 55,000 likes, writing: "At moments like these, the people who are really lucky are those who can be with the people they love the most." I captured this moment a year ago. ”

It took the German photographer three full nights to observe the penguin colony before taking pictures of two elf penguins embracing each other.

He continued on social media: "The two fairy penguins stood on a rock overlooking Melbourne's skyline, where they stood for hours, swapping hands for one, looking at the skyline and the glittering lights of the ocean."

The photo was taken at st Kilda Marina, where a herd of about 1,400 elven penguins, also known as little penguins, is known for their lack of height, and they are the smallest penguin species with an average height of only 33 centimeters and are closely monitored by local volunteers.

A volunteer came up to me and told me that the white one was just an old woman who had lost her partner, and the young male on the left had apparently lost her partner as well, and since then they had seen each other often, comforted each other, and stood for hours at a time, watching the lights of a nearby city dance.

"Because I couldn't and wasn't allowed to use any lights, the little penguins kept moving, rubbing each other's backs with their flippers and bathing each other, which was really hard to take a picture of, but I was lucky in this beautiful moment." I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I do. He added.

Penguins are notoriously monogamous animals – they only mate during mating season and last most of their lives.

Although penguins walk more than 10,000 miles a year, they are very loyal to their mates.