Gay penguin couple fostering egg together at Sydney Sea Life Aquarium

Staff give same-sex pair egg to care for after seeing them bond ahead of breeding season

Two male penguins who built a nest from ice pebbles at Sydney’s Sea Life Aquarium are now fostering an egg given to them by staff who suspected they were more than friends.

The gentoo penguins, Magic and Sphen, bonded ahead of the 2018 breeding season and began collecting the pebbles, broadcaster ABC said.

The pair were firstly given a dummy egg then entrusted with a real one after showing strong nurturing skills.

“We’d go over there and Magic and Sphen would be bowing to each other,” Tish Hannan, supervisor of the aquarium’s penguin department, told the broadcaster.

Upon receiving the dummy egg, they “immediately knew exactly what it was and started incubating it”, she said.

Gentoo penguins share parenting and feeding responsibilities equally, so there is little difference between opposite-sex and same-sex parenting, Ms Hannan added, noting that relationships of this kind have also been known to form in other zoos.

A children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, based on the real story of two penguins at New York‘s Central Park Zoo who reared their own chick, drew acclaim from some for depicting non-traditional family structures.

It was also among some titles pulled from bookshelves in public libraries in Hong Kong this year after pressure from anti-gay groups, the South China Morning Post newspaper has said.

Reuters