A couple of male penguins welcome their first foster child
A couple of male penguins in a zoo in New York have successfully fostered and hatched an egg! They are the first same-sex penguin coupling at the zoo to successfully do so. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse is the home of the two male Humboldt penguins that adopted and hatched the egg.
Elmer and Lima are the parents of the new hatchling and were born at the zoo themselves. Elmer was born in 2016 and Lima was born in 2019. They became an official bonded couple in the fall of 2021.
The zoo’s director told CNN in an interview that penguins at their facility are free to choose who they want to spend time with. These two penguins chose each other.
“The welfare and well-being of every animal that lives at the zoo are very important to us and we support and encourage each animal to make its own choices when choosing their mates,” said Tedd Fox, the zoo’s director.
The egg that Elmer and Lima hatched was laid by a heterosexual penguin couple at the zoo. Sometimes, eggs are transferred from the couple that laid the egg to others, depending on the circumstances. This is what happened this time.
Fox says that the hatchling is doing very well. It is healthy and growing and its adopted parents continue to care and brood over the little thing. In a press release from the zoo, Fox states that the penguins are doing a great parenting job.
“At our first health check when the chick was five days old, it weighed 226 grams (8 ounces),” Fox said in a press release. “It continues to be brooded and cared for by both Elmer and Lima, who are doing a great job.”
Elmer and Lima are not the first or only same-sex penguin couple that has successfully fostered chicks around the world. A female/female coupling of penguins fostered an egg in Spain, and male/male couplings have also successfully fostered eggs in zoos and aquariums in both Sydney and Berlin.
Central Park Zoo has also seen the male/male penguin coupling successfully foster penguin eggs. Apparently, that coupling is no longer still together, and one half wandered off in favor of another male penguin at the zoo.
Either way, we can’t wait to see what becomes of this lovely new addition to the zoo in Syracuse. The little chick is male and is yet to be named, according to official media communications from the zoo. So, watch this space, we guess!
