Gay Penguin Dads Diego and Zorro Welcome Chick, Ponyo
Diego and Zorro, a gay penguin couple at the Oceanarium in Bournemouth, England, were given an egg to foster. Now they've welcomed a chick, Ponyo, to their family, an article at Out Traveler reported.
The Oceanarium announced the joyful news in social media posts on July 5, noting that Ponyo had hatched "just in time for Bournemouth's PRIDE celebrations this weekend!"
The post said that the new arrival isn't quite ready for prime time, but added that Ponyo would soon be "ready to come out and say hello!"
The Oceanarium's website notes that penguins like the ones it cares for "are monogamous, and both adults will share responsibility for nest building and chick rearing."
"Hatching after an incubation period of 40 days, chicks usually leave the nest at around 12 weeks old," the site adds.
It's not unusual for same-sex penguin couples to show an inclination to foster eggs, just as mixed-gender penguin couples do. This can lead to a handy arrangement if a mixed-gender pair have more than one egg; penguin couples can only take care of one egg at a time, so "extra" eggs are sometimes given to same-sex couples to tend to.
Before eggs are given over for fostering, though, zookeepers will assess a couple's fitness by giving them a "dummy" egg to look after.
Such was the case here, the article reported. "The Oceanarium's penguin keeper Kat Nicola explained that the two lovebirds had shown a strong parenting skillset the previous year when they were given a dummy egg."
Nicola related in a statement that this "has been Diego and Zorro's second time fostering and once again they have smashed it, becoming quite the experts at parenting."
Same-sex pairings among penguins have been noted in zoos and aquariums around the world, with some penguin couples becoming celebrities. Sphen and Magic, a couple that have fostered multiple eggs across the years, are a draw at SEA LIFE Aquarium in Sydney, Australia, and a popular children's book from 2005, "And Tango Makes Three," is based on the real-life parenting of a chick named Tango by same-sex couple Silo and Roy, who lived at the Central Park Zoo in New York.