Environment

Two gay penguins raise their adopted chick in Germany

by Amy Judd | June 4, 2009 at 11:50 am

481 views | 44 Recommendations | 5 comments

Two gay penguins at a zoo in Bremerhaven Germany have hatched their own chick and are now acting as its adoptive parents. They were given the egg as it was rejected by its biological parents so the gay couple decided to hatch and rear it as their own.

The chick is now four weeks old and seems to be happy and content.

This is the same zoo that made headlines in 2005 due to the fact that they wanted to test the sexual orientation of their penguins, as three pairs of males had all been trying to mate with each other and then try to hatch stones.

The zoo did introduce four new females at that time but none of the males were interested, and gay rights activists became angry that the zoo was interfering in natural animal behaviour.

The six "gay" penguins remain at the zoo, among them Z and Vielpunkt who are now rearing the chick together after being given the rejected egg.

"Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter gift' and got straight down to raising it," said a zoo statement.

"Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do. The two happy fathers spend their days attentively protecting, caring for and feeding their adopted offspring."

The penguins are Humboldt penguins, whose numbers have been declining in the wild due to overfishing.

This is not the first situation of penguins acting in this manner and homosexual behaviour is will documented in many animals but is not completely understood. Not all couples want to get together to reproduce and it's the same in the animal kingdom.

4 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon