People Celebrate Same-Sex Penguin Couple Who Stole An Egg To Raise As Their Own
Nov 28, 2019 by apost team
Normally, somebody stealing an egg from a couple would be, at the least, frowned upon. However, in this case, people cannot help but cheer for the thieves. That's because they are a pair of African penguins who are both male. They recently stole an egg from a heterosexual couple and have since been raising it as their own.
These penguins are being housed at DierenPark Amersfoort, a zoo that's situated in Amersfoort, which is 35 miles southeast of Amsterdam. Marc Belt, a zookeeper there, told Dutch News that "the gay couple are looking after the egg very well and take turns in keeping it warm."
apost.com
What set the stage for this cool parental situation was a moment of stealth and deception as they had snatched the egg from its original owners when nobody was keeping an eye on it. However, zookeepers are quick to add that the couple who lost that egg have already produced a new one and don't seem all that bothered by the disappearance.
Homosexuality is actually, as Belt added, "fairly common in penguins," but they are usually not able to or willing to take care of their own egg unless it's been provided by zookeepers. The jury is still out as to whether the stolen egg will hatch, but the happy couple, the zookeepers and their fans around the world are all hoping so.
One recent failed attempt by gay penguins to adopt an egg occurred in August 2019 at the Berlin Zoo, as reported by BBC News. There, these animals had attempted to hatch "a wet rock and a slimy fish." The caring zookeepers then provided them with a donor egg to take care of after seeing that "they were so nice to their stone."
According to Live Science, one of the earliest reportings of gay penguins occurred during the attempted Antarctic expedition of 1910-1913. At the time, George Murray Levick, a British scientist, said that he was surprised to see gay penguin couples.
Michael Waters is one of many taken in by the story of these gay penguins in the Netherlands. He recently tweeted, "I want the energy of this Dutch gay penguin couple, who apparently stole an egg 'when no one was looking' and are now trying to raise it as their own."
Do you know of any same-sex animal couples? If so, have they attempted to parent a young one?