'Gay' penguins get their own egg to look after

PA

A pair of very friendly male penguins at a zoo in Madrid have finally been given their own egg after building a nest every six years in the hope of the stalk appearing with a gift.

Gentoo penguins Inca and Rayas have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into parenthood, with Inca taking on the "female" role of incubating the egg for most of the day, every day.

And, according to the Telegraph, Rayas has been filling up on food do he can take on the traditional male job of feeding his young with regurgitated fish.

Yolanda Martin, who cares for the penguins at Faunia Park in Spain, told the paper: "We wanted them to have something to stay together for – so we got an egg. Otherwise they might have become depressed."

Ms Martin emphasised that the pair are not actually gay, but just the best of friends.

They are not the first male penguins to get an egg of their own; staff at a zoo in China gave a penguin couple named Adam and Steve a chick to look after last year.

It wasn't such a happy story for gay penguins Pedro and Buddy at Toronto Zoo last year when they had to be separated and paired with a female in the hopes they would 'bond and breed'.

But, don't worry,the pair were reunited after the attempts to mate with females failed.


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