n a riveting and surprisingly bloody video from National Geographic’s Animal Fight Night, a dramatic story of betrayal amongst penguins is captured (above).

When a male penguin comes home to find his mate with another male, he is furious at the “home wrecker”. After a substantial fight, they call out to the female to choose one of them as her mate. She picks the “home wrecker,” but it doesn’t end there.

Her husband has a lot to lose, the mother of his children, and so he burrows in and starts a bloody beak fight. When the female sees that the home wrecker has clearly lost this fight, she stays with her husband.

While it may surprise viewers to see such a bloodbath at the hands of these seemingly cuddly creatures, they can actually be brutal fighters. Their bone-filled wings may make them unable to fly, but they do enable the birds to brutally clubber one another. Their beaks are a mighty weapon as well, as seen in the above video, they can render an unfortunate degree of damage.

Penguins are well known as being monogamous and loyal, and most types of penguins also mate for life. Emperor penguins are monogamous, but change their partner each season.