Story at a glance
- Elmer and Lima, two adult male Humboldt penguins at a zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., this month become the zoo’s first set of same-sex foster parents.
- The duo had paired up in the fall for the current breeding season, according to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, and built a nest together before they were given a foster egg.
- In the past, same-sex penguin pairs at other institutions have been successful in incubating foster eggs and raising foster chicks.
Two male penguins at a zoo in upstate New York have hatched a chick together, effectively becoming the zoo’s first set of “foster dads.”
Elmer and Lima, two adult male Humboldt penguins at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., cared for the egg together after forming a pair bond for the current breeding season, the zoo said Friday. The chick hatched on Jan. 1, and the two penguins have been raising it together in the zoo’s penguin colony, which has 28 birds.
The same-sex pair is a first for the zoo, though it has used foster parents to incubate eggs previously, as not all breeding pairs are cut out to be parents.
In at least two cases, breeding pairs at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo have unintentionally broken their fertilized eggs, leading zookeepers to swap out further eggs between the pair for “dummy” eggs and give the real eggs to a potentially more successful set of parents.
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
“It takes practice,” Rosamond Gifford Zoo Director Ted Fox said of egg incubation.
“Some pairs, when given a dummy egg, will sit on the nest but leave the egg to the side and not incubate it correctly, or they’ll fight for who is going to sit on it when,” Fox said Friday in a news release. “That’s how we evaluate who will be good foster parents — and Elmer and Lima were exemplary in every aspect of egg care.”
According to the zoo, Elmer and Lima paired up in the fall for the current breeding season, building a nest together and defending their territory. When an egg laid in late December was determined to have a viable embryo inside, zookeepers decided to give the duo a chance to incubate it.
Both males did a “great job” of taking turns incubating the egg until it hatched on New Year’s Day, and they have been feeding and brooding, or warming, the chick since, Fox said. If things go according to plan and the chick stays healthy, the pair will be considered for future fosters.
A handful of other facilities have had success with same-sex penguin “foster parents.”
Electra and Viola, a female pair of Gentoo penguins at the Oceanogràfic Valencia aquarium in Spain, in 2020 incubated and raised a chick from another male-female couple. At the Berlin zoo, a male pair of king penguins — Skipper and Ping — successfully fostered an egg in 2019, as did Eduardo and Rio, a male pair of Magellanic penguins at the San Francisco Zoo.
Even in the wild, experts say, same-sex partnerships are not altogether uncommon, and they’re used by animals like rams and dolphins to strengthen social bonds and contribute to group unity.
Fox said same-sex penguin pairs show that the idea of “family” is not species specific.
“Elmer and Lima’s success at fostering is one more story that our zoo can share to help people of all ages and backgrounds relate to animals,” Fox said.
READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA
TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT INTRODUCES NEW ‘PARENTAL BILL OF RIGHTS’
SCIENTISTS ARE MONITORING A NEW OMICRON SUBVARIANT CALLED BA.2
HOUSE COMMITTEE IN FLORIDA PASSES ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL
MAN REPORTEDLY DENIED HEART TRANSPLANT BECAUSE HE’S NOT VACCINATED AGAINST COVID-19
RESEARCHERS FIND GENETIC LINK TO COVID-19-INDUCED LOSS OF SMELL AND TASTE
changing america copyright.
