These two gay penguins may finally welcome a chick
August 9, 2019
The Berlin Zoo's two male penguins have been caring for the egg since July and have long sought to be new parents. The pair will find out in September if they are successful.
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A pair of male penguins have adopted an abandoned egg at the Berlin Zoo in an effort to welcome the pair's first chick.
The same-sex couple — Skipper and Ping — have harbored parenting ambitions for some time. The 10-year-olds had attempted to hatch stones and even fish, a zookeeper told the daily Berliner Zeitung.
Polish zoo shows off rare albino penguin chick
The shy, waddling addition to the Gdansk Zoo is only three months old. It's also the only bird of its kind in captivity.
Image: Reuters/M. Ryniak
Extremely rare
Gdansk Zoo allowed its new albino penguin out for a stroll in front of the public for the first time on Friday. Zookeepers are still unsure whether the 3-month-old is male or female. Until they find out, the chick will go without a name. What they do know is the bird is the only penguin of its kind in captivity.
Image: Reuters/M. Ryniak
Left out in the cold
"It's shy and a little bit scared... We didn't want to put it through the stress of a thorough medical examination," spokesperson Emilia Salach said. Staff are nervous the other birds will reject it because of its unusual appearance; so far, they have kept it separated from most of the rest of the flock.
Image: Reuters/M. Ryniak
Placid penguin parents
"Every misfit in a flock is more exposed to rejection and harm... We can see already it hasn't been accepted yet by most of our little penguin family," Salach said. For the moment the bird lives with its parents and two of the zoo's most placid penguins.
Image: Reuters/M. Ryniak
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Paternal instincts
The broody pair has been caring for the egg since it was abandoned by the penguin colony's lone female. "We just had to put it in front of one of the males. He immediately knew what to do. This is the first time we've tried to have a same-sex penguin couple incubate an egg," zookeeper Norbert Zahmel told the newspaper.
Skipper and Ping's chances of welcoming a chick to the six-penguin colony depend on whether the egg is fertilized, which the zoo said was not known. If it is — and the egg is successfully looked after — Skipper and Ping could become surrogate parents in as much as 55 days, or early September.
Same-sex courtships in penguin colonies have been documented by scientists for decades — and this is not the Berlin Zoo's first encounter. Several years ago, king penguin residents Stan and Ollie became a couple at the zoo before relocating to Hamburg.
10 animal species that show how being gay is natural
Same-sex pairing is not just normal in the animal kingdom - it's even common. Studies suggest that about 1,500 animal species are known to practice same-sex coupling - from insects, to fish, birds and mammals.
Among giraffes, there's more same-sex than opposite-sex activity. In fact, studies say gay sex accounts for more than 90 percent of all observed sexual activity in giraffes. And they don't just get straight to business. Male giraffes know how to flirt, first necking with each other - that is, gently rubbing their necks along the other's body. This foreplay can last for up to an hour.
Image: imago/Nature Picture Library
Social bottlenose dolphins
Both female and male bottlenose dolphins display homosexual behavior, including oral action where one dolphin stimulates the other with its snout. In the bottlenose world, homosexual activity occurs with about the same frequency as heterosexual play. Male bottlenose dolphins are generally bisexual - but they do go through periods of being exclusively homosexual.
Homosexuality is common among lions as well. Two to four males often form what is known as a coalition, where they work together to court female lions. They depend on each other to fend off other coalitions. To ensure loyalty, male lions strengthen their bonds by having sex with each other. Many researchers refer to this behavior as your classical "bromance" rather than homosexual pairing.
Image: ARTIS/R. van Weeren
Mounting bisons
Homosexual activity between male bisons is more common than heterosexual copulation. That's because female bisons only mate with bulls about once a year. During mating season, males that get the urge engage in same-sex activities several times a day. And so, more than 50 percent of mounting in young bison males happens among the same gender.
Image: imago/Nature Picture Library
Macaques' one-night stands
Both female and male macaques engage in same-sex activity. But while males usually only do so for a night, females form intense bonds with each other and are usually monogamous. In some macaque populations, homosexual behavior among females is not only common, but the norm. When not mating, these females stay close together to sleep and groom, and defend each other from outside enemies.
Image: picture alliance/robertharding
Albatross bonds
The Layson albatross, which nests in Hawaii, is known for its large number of homosexual partnerships. Around 30 percent of pairings on the island of Oahu are made up of two females. They are monogamous, and usually stay together for life - as it takes two parents to successfully rear a chick together. The chicks are often fathered by males that are already in another committed relationship.
Image: imago/Mint Images
Sex-crazed bonobos
Bonobos are considered the closest living relative to us humans, and are known for seeking sexual pleasure. They copulate frequently, including with the same sex. They do so for pleasure - but also to bond with each other, climb the social ladder and reduce tension. About two-thirds of homosexual activities happen among females, but also males enjoy a roll in the grass with each other.
Image: picture-alliance/F. Lanting
A fifth of all swan couples are gay
Like many birds, swans are monogamous and stick with one partner for years. Many of them choose a same-sex partner. In fact, around 20 percent of swan couples are homosexuals - and they often start families together. Sometimes, one swan in a male couple will mate with a female, and then drive her away once she's laid a clutch of eggs. In other cases, they adopt abandoned eggs.
Male walruses only reach sexual maturity at the age of 4. Until then, they are almost exclusively gay. Once they've reached maturity, most males are bisexual and mate with females during breeding season - while having sex with other males the rest of the year. It's not just gay sex though - the males also embrace each other and sleep close to one another in water.
Image: imago/Nature in Stock
Sheeps' preferences
Studies suggest that up to 8 percent of males in flocks of sheep prefer other males, even when fertile females are around. However, this only occurs among domestic sheep. Studies have found that these homosexual sheep have a different brain structure than their heterosexual counterparts, and release less sex hormones.