Gay penguin couple adopts abandoned egg in German zoo

[O'Zebedee]

CBC

Gay penguin couple adopts abandoned egg in German zoo

Last Updated: Friday, June 5, 2009 | 12:23 PM ET

Two male Humboldt penguins cautiously guard the entrance to their cave in the zoological park in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, where they are foster dads to a six-week-old penguin chick. (Focke Strangmann/Associated Press)Keepers at Germany's Bremerhaven zoo couldn't get two penguin parents to take care of their egg, so they're trying an experiment — they gave the egg to a gay male penguin couple.

The biological parents "always rolled the egg out of their nest, they kicked it out again and again," zoo veterinarian Joachim Schoene said.

"Then we made the decision not to give it up and instead try to give it two fathers."

So far, the experiment has been a success. The two foster dads incubated the egg for 30 days until it hatched and have continued to care for the newborn chick.

The male penguins, named Z and Vielpunkt, are one of three same-sex pairs of Humboldt penguins at the zoo. That means almost a third of the zoo's 20 penguins who have attempted to mate exhibit homosexual behaviour.

The behaviour is not considered unusual because homosexuality has been well documented in the animal kingdom. Same-sex penguin pairs have also been observed at zoos in Japan and New York.

A similar experiment was performed at New York City's Central Park Zoo in 2004. Two male chinstrap penguins named Roy and Silo incubated an egg together and raised the chick when she hatched.

Z, Vielpunkt and their adopted chick have proven a hit with visitors to the Bremerhaven zoo.

[O'Zebedee]

Comment from a reader: "In related news, parents now have banned their children from reading about penguins in school for fear of having their children turn into gay evolutionary biologists."

[Johnson]

Heartwarming... I think. Too bad fag humans smoke speed and torture their 'adopted eggs.'

[Fuh Fuh Fuhey]

dO THESE GAY PENGUINS DRESS UP LIKE WOMEN? ARE THEY THAI OR CAMBODIAN? iF SO I AM IN! OM NOM NOM NOM

[Edmonds Fitzgerald]

I stopped watching the CBC after they aired that documentary with that pretentious little prick whatshisface. Dude travels to europe and smugly goes around asking politicians "how come multi-culturalism works in Canada but not in Europe?".

[O'Zebedee]

www.godhatespenguins.com