A pair of male penguins from a Dutch zoo wanted so badly to have a baby that they stole an egg from other penguins.
The two male penguins – African penguins – from the DierenPark Amersfoort zoo in the Netherlands were found whole incubating an egg, which was not theirs. Their nest, where they put the egg, was near another nest that belonged to a male and a female penguin couple.
Hatching season was already there, and the males probably swiped the egg from their neighbors while they were not paying attention, according to a statement from the zoo. Some eggs have already hatched, and the caregivers are now paying attention to the zoo penguins, who are taking turns warming the egg. However, it might not be all honey and milk since the stolen egg may not have been fertilized.
This couple is not the only same-sex couple of penguins out there. There’s also Silo and Roy, from the Central Park Zoo in New York City, partners for about six years. Then there’s Skip and Ping, from Berlin and Magic and Sphen, from Sea Life Sydney Aquarium in Australia. All of these same-sex couples fostered eggs. Silo and Roy hatched theirs in 2005, Magic and Sphen’s hatched on the 19th of October 2018. Skip, and Ping didn’t have the same luck: their unfertilized egg simply burst open, despite their attention.
In case you don’t know, Penguins are not the only birds that form homosexual relationships; there are more than 130 birds species that choose to live in a same-sex couple, and they are nesting together for years.
