Gay penguin couple steals chick from ‘neglectful’ parents
Image: Image: Odense Zoo / Facebook.
A gay penguin couple at a Denmark zoo have ‘kidnapped’ a baby chick from a pair of straight penguins they felt were being neglectful parents.
King penguins Elias and Emil, both male, made their move while the parents went for a swim, according to a zookeeper at Odense Zoo.
Sandie Hedgegard Munck said the pair wanted to be parents themselves and must have perceived the chick to be neglected by his father.
“The parents disappeared, and the kid was simply kidnapped,” Munck said.
“I know that the female is very caring for the kid, and she is also very aggressive to us animal lovers if we get too close to the chick,” she said.
“I think the female had been out to get her bath, and then it had been the male’s turn to care for the kid. He may have then left, and then the [gay] couple had thought, ‘It’s a pity, we’ll take it.’
“I expected the parents to come and demand the kid back. But the male wandered around acting like he’d never had a kid. The female was searching for the baby, but not very hard.”
After a day, the parents reportedly confronted Elias and Emil, who will likely now be relegated to estranged gay uncle status.
The zoo managed to capture the drama on camera and posted it to their Facebook page.
The story does have a happy ending, however, with Emil and Elias being given an egg from a mother who couldn’t raise a baby on her own.
In 2004, a penguin pair named Roy and Silo were observed at New York’s Central Park Zoo trying to hatch a rock.
Zookeepers gave the pair an egg of their own to raise, with the baby – named Tango – hatching successfully.
The rainbow penguin family later inspired a children’s book called And Tango Makes Three.
Last year, a gay penguin couple were observed trying to steal eggs at a Chinsese zoo.
Penguins stand alongside lions, dolphins, flying foxes and vultures as some of our queerest animals.
