Two 'gay' flamingo dads have adopted a chick after it was left behind before hatching in a nest at the Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, England.
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After the biological parents abandoned the egg, zookeepers placed it in an incubator to increase its chance of survival and began contemplating finding adoptive parents for the chick once it hatched.
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That’s when Hudson and Blaze came to mind, as the parents had been taking excellent care of their shared nest.
The zookeepers decided the experienced parents were the perfect candidates to take the baby chick under its wings.
A press release issued by Whipsnade Zoo also shared how the parents guarded the egg until it hatched and have taken 'exemplary care' of their new child ever since.
Bird team leader at the zoo Tim Savage said of the dynamic duo: “Flamingos usually work together, as a monogamous pair, to care for their eggs and subsequent chicks.
"Hudson and Blaze were the clear choice for the incubated egg, as they have always proved to be ideal parents.
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“After the chick hatched in their nest, they sat with it for two weeks, keeping it warm and protecting it from other flamingos, who often squabble and shove around different nest sites."
He added: “Fluffy grey flamingo chicks are fed with bright red ‘crop milk’, which is made by both male and female parents. It is made in the linings of their digestive tract, and contains fat, protein and blood cells.
“You can often spot the new parents in a group, because they give so much of their own pigment to their chicks that they almost turn white!”
Similarly, In August 2019, two gay penguins, Skipper and Ping, began looking after an egg after searching for one for about a month at the Berlin Zoo.
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Ahhhh, my heart can’t take it.
According to the German news outlet Berliner-Zeitung, a spokesperson for the zoo, Maximilian Jäger, said that zookeepers saw the two trying to hatch ‘fish and stones’.
But they found an egg after the only female penguin at the zoo abandoned it.
After obtaining it, the two took turns keeping it warm while fending it off from other penguins wanting to steal it.
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"We just had to put it on the feet of one of the guys, and he already knew what to do," said zookeeper Norbert Zahmel.
Charisa Bossinakis