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British scientists studying penguins up close were horrified to find the birds engaging in gang rape and prostitution, but their findings were seen as too scandalous to be published more than 100 years ago.

George Murray Levick, a zoologist, saw the birds sexually abusing chicks and even having sex with dead penguins, but his book was too shocking for Edwardian Britain.

He made his findings in 1910, but the findings have only now been revealed in a new book A Polar Affair by Lloyd Spencer Davis.

Levick set off on the British Antarctic Expedition, led by explorer Robert Falcon Scott, to study polar wildlife up close.

Pegasus Books, which is publishing the new account, says Levick was the "first man to study penguins up close".

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

In his account, he described witnessing "gang rape" and the sexual abuse of young penguins, according to The Sun.

Female penguins were often "pimped out" with stones, but would sometimes run away with them after a courtship ritual, he said.

Most shockingly, he recorded instances of necrophilia, sometimes a year after one of the penguins had died.

According to the book, Levick wrote his findings in Greek because they were too shocking to be read by the "uneducated" public.

Discussing what he had found, he blamed the penguins' "astonishing depravity" on "hooligan males".

(Image: Sourced)

The publisher says: "Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close.

"His findings were so shocking to Edwardian morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history.

"A century later, Lloyd Spencer Davis rediscovers Levick and his findings during the course of his own scientific adventures in Antarctica."

(Image: Getty Images)

Levick studied the Adelie penguins, native to Antarctica, which are named after a French explorer's wife.

Male Adelie penguins usually attract a mate by building the biggest and best nest.

They are the smallest species of penguin, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Despite that, they have been known to get extremely aggressive, attacking seals, potential predators and even humans with their flippers.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Same-sex couples are common among Antarctic penguins.

Such couples are previously been known to raise young at zoos including in Berlin and New York.

Unlike most mammals, male and female penguins take on the same parenting roles, sharing the duties.

"There is no real difference when it comes to breeding behaviours between males and females," a Sea Life expert said last year.

"It is common to have male-male or female-female showing courtship and breeding behaviour."