Carlos and Fernando, a pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick. Zoo staff say they have been desperate to start a family, even chasing other flamingos from their nests to steal their eggs at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge near Bristol.And so they were chosen as adoptive parents for an unhatched egg when a nest was abandoned. The males have the ability to feed chicks by producing milk in their throats.
The couple has been together for six years and WWT spokeswoman, Jane Waghorn, says "Gay flamingos are not uncommon. If there aren't enough females or they don't hit it off with them, they will pair off with other males."
4 comments:
wow, that's funny. yet interesting. I linked you, and I also wonder if there's any documented cases of lesbian couples in nature. gay couples and relationships I've heard much about. What about the opposite?
Hyenas come to my mind, with their weird sexual anatomy and high level of testosterones it may be difficult for them to distinguish between males and female? mah?
Lesbians are certainly common in the animal kingdom, we are only scratching the surface of understanding mating behaviors. Thanks for the hyena link, it is certainly one of the more talked about cases of unusual mammalian anatomy and the driving force behind it.
Also, I just happened to read through Dr Tatiana letter on Hyenas, she goes in some details about the (supposed) mechanism and reasons behind the strange anatomical twist...
Good post.
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