Gay penguins get ready to become dads
The doting pair are eagerly awaiting parenthood
- by
Kathryn Lewsey
A pair of homosexual penguins are getting ready to become parents after they were given an egg to look after.
Skipper and Ping, who live at Berlin Zoo, are preparing for their big arrival and taking in turns to protect the egg from other penguins.
Berlin Zoo
Staff at the zoo gave the emperor penguins the egg for them to adopt last month.
According to Yahoo News, zoo spokesperson, Maximillan Jaeger explained, ‘The two male penguins are acting like exemplary parents, taking turns to warm the egg.’
The gay penguins, who arrived to Berlin from Hamburg in April, had been showing signs they wanted an egg for a while.
‘They kept trying to hatch fish and stones,’ Jaeger explained.
So staff decided to give them a real egg, which was from a female in the group, who had tried and failed to hatch various eggs in the past.
Jaeger added, ‘We’re not sure if the egg has been fertilised.’
It’s not unusual for same-sex penguins to form relationships.
‘Same-sex penguins couples exist their natural habitat as well,’ Jaeger said.
In the past, male homosexual penguin couples have also successfully hatched eggs before.
Kathryn Lewsey
Kathryn is a Senior Features Writer for that's life! magazine. Her work has been published in The Sun, Daily Mail, Chat, Closer, Kidspot, Real People, Take a Break and MarieClaire.com.au
