‘Gay’ Penguins Raise Adopted Chick
Spiegel Online:Two male penguins at a zoo in Bremerhaven, Germany — who have been a pair for years — have hatched and raised an abandoned chick as their own.
A pair of male penguins has adopted an abandoned chick, now about a month old, at a zoo in Bremerhaven, Germany. Zoo veterinarian Joachin Schöne said Wednesday that the two Humboldt penguins took turns incubating the egg, which had been abandoned by its biological parents. Zookeepers had placed the egg near the two male penguins in the hope that they would care for it as their own. The experiment, so far, has worked.
The chick hatched at the end of April and the proud fathers Z and Vielpunkt — who have been a couple for years, the zoo said — quickly acted like surrogate parents. Every day they clean, protect and feed the little penguin a solid diet of pre-digested fish.
“They care for it in a very touching way — just like a heterosexual couple,” Schöne said. The young penguin is not yet named and its gender is still unknown.
