A British influencer felt 'guilty' after she was slammed for taking a selfie in front of 'stressed' penguins while they were having sex.
Steph Elswood took the picture in Boulders Beach, South Africa, and shared it with her 241,000 Instagram followers shortly afterwards.
However, conservationists criticised her for getting too close to the African Penguins.
Ms Elswood captioned her 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)"
According to Mail Online, Ms Elswood updated her Instagram post to apologise for her actions, telling her followers that the penguins in the area were under lots of stress due to tourists getting too close.
She said: "I feel guilty that I contributed to that and thought that because they weren't reacting when I got close that they weren't bothered by me."
The influencer told Metro she is an animal lover and a vegan, who would never want to harm any animals.
She said locals had contacted her through Instagram and told her about the stress some tourists are causing the penguins.
Ms Elswood added that she changed her caption to encourage other people to be careful when approaching the creatures.
