Gay penguin dads in German zoo hatch their first chick

Z and Vielpunkt, two male Humboldt penguins at Germany's Bremerhaven Zoo, are the proud new parents of a healthy penguin chick.

"Another couple threw the egg out of their batch. We picked it up and put it in the nest of the gay penguins," veterinarian Joachim Schöne told the German newspaper Bild of the pair's entry into parenthood. Z and Vielpunkt faithfully cared for their adopted egg for more than a month; in late April it hatched.  Since then, they've been taking care of their chick around the clock; it's still too young to feed itself, so the dads feed him fish mash, Schöne explained. 

"Since the chick arrived, they have been behaving just as you would expect a heterosexual couple to do," the zoo said in a statement. 

The Bremerhaven Zoo's same-sex penguin couples (there are three such pairs in residence there, all males) first made news back in 2005, according to the BBC.  At the time, the zoo announced plans to "test" the sexual orientations of the six penguins, who'd been seen engaging in mating rituals and trying to incubate rocks as if they were eggs.  Gay rights advocates were outraged when the zoo brought four new female penguins into the colony in a bid to encourage the penguins to reproduce, and the zoo later nixed the idea.  (In the zoo's defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing.  And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)

Z and Vielpunkt aren't the first same-sex penguin pair to successfully care for a chick.  Another such couple were male chinstrap penguin residents of New York's Central Park Zoo named Roy and Silo.  Roy and Silo, much like the Bremerhaven penguins, were so anxious to hatch an egg that they tried incubating a rock. They were eventually given an "orphaned" fertile egg and successfully raised a female chick named Tango.

Another male penguin couple were removed from their colony in a Chinese zoo last year when they repeatedly tried to steal eggs from male-and-female pairs.  (In a rather ingenious move, they actually replaced the eggs they were stealing with rocks.)  But visitors complained when the penguins were removed, and eventually they were given two eggs of their own.  Since then, a keeper told the Daily Mail, "they've turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo."

--Lindsay Barnett

Top photo: Z and Vielpunkt in their enclosure

 Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency

Bottom photo: The couple's chick, who has not been named and whose sex is still unknown

Credit: Carmen Jaspersen / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[ronaldo]

This is pretty cool.

[Jack]

Should they now take away the chick from the two same sex penguins because they "choose" to be gay and two same sex partners raising a child is unnatural according to the rightwing ? Proof that being gay is NOT a choice.

[tomstaph]

Question for the Christians: do you still think being gay is a choice? Or are you delusional enough to think that even penguins need "reparative" therapy?

[Jenny]

Building nests (penguins make them out of rocks) is NOT engaging in homosexual activity. Those penguins were following their biological imperative, as it is the male penguins that make the nest in anticipation of the female penguin's arrival and selection of a mate. It is not a sign of being gay.

[Sabio]

I think it's great that Americans and Germans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same-sex penguin marriage or opposite penguin marriage and, you know what, in my country and my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between one male penguin and one female penguin. No offense to anyone or any penguins out there but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be between a male penguin and a female penguin.

[Number 6]

Absurd,.....absolutely abSURD!!!

[Dade Williams]

aww, cute story, though I KNOW GAY ISNT A CHOICE

but given the choice knowing what i know now id still go gay HAH! crazy breeders

anyway i kind of agree with jenny about the nest building but whatever, penguin see penguin do ;)

and clearly the gays still have to take care of what the breeders dont want, and adopt ;)

[Rob]

Sabio:

I love it! I don't think anyone else caught your reference to Ms. Cali.

[Miguel]

Are there any doubts out there? This is not the first time that nature teaches us about sexual preferences. How can there be people out there convinced that being homosexual is still a personal decision. Three answers to that question: A) you are gay and in the closet, B) you are George Bush or C) All of the above...

[Joe Joe]

What's funny is that the pro-gay folks flipped out when they threw some females into the cage with them and forced them to take them back out....

Not so secure that those male penguins would stay true to their "lifestyle", eh?

[Richard]

The melting of the glaciers in Antarctica is clearly a sign of God's wrath against this satanic species!

[kristen]

Gay penquins- who knew>

[Deborah Gallagher]

Just a note about the nesting. While true they do use rocks to build nest the rock they were referring to was put in the center of the nest and turned regular basics. THIS IS THE ACTION OF CARING FOR AN EGG.. AFTER THE NEST IS BUILT...

I think this story is great ... I'm a woman with a male husband with children and grandchildren... And plan to share this story with all of them.

[Deanna Phillips]

This only shows that animals can have homosexual desires and behavior. Because this happens "naturally" it might imply that the animals were "born that way." However, animals were born to naturally desire things that we would think are morally wrong to carry out. For example, stealing food or other animals' offspring, or killing their own or others' offspring, or killing and/or eating their own kind, just to name a few obvious ones. Does this mean that we should condone this behavior in humans?

The real question is, what do we consider morally wrong? If we as humans don't have standards of some type we might as well have anarchy and kiss the whole planet goodbye--we would "naturally" want to do things that destroy it (think of our natural tendency to dispose of garbage and how it affects the environment). The bottom line? We can't let what animals "naturally" do decide this question for us morally. We need some other standard. What is it? What's the "natural" answer? Who can definitively say what that is for humans, for all time?

Well, the most trusted person ever, Jesus (of the Bible), had some ideas... You might want to look into it.

[southernfriedactivist]

Jenny, if you read another article about this pair (Google 2 gay penguins and a chick), they have tried to mate with EACH OTHER several times. It's not just nest building, they live together like male/female pairs and have some remnants of a sex life as well.

[BMCM]

I am gay and I do not choose to be gay. That right there is proof. Why would I lie. I DID NOT CHOOSE TO BE GAY! Millions of gay people that say "I was born this way" are NOT LYING. That's all the proof anyone needs.

[dave]

@Deborah
If you look at what Jesus actually says in the bible, he never says ANYTHING about being gay.
Our modern concept of being gay didn't even exist in those times. Who says something about being gay in the New Testament is Paul - but Paul also has very clear ideas about the role of women in society - e.g. that they should never assume power over a man.
The penguins show that gender is more complex than man and woman, and especially we as inquiring human beings should be able to be responsible toward ourselves - and DEAL with that complexity, instead of separating men and women and locking away the women, like e.g. in Iran.
There are lots of preconceptions about what being "gay" supposedly entails - and the penguins show that this is also true for the animal world.
It's obviously Gods plan.

[Joe]

This is not gay just 2 male penguins caring for an unwanted egg you people are idiots for thinking this is gay? shame on you

[Sylvia K]

This is so cute!
And I am so very glad that those two birds don't understand a damn thing about all the controversy over gay marriage, etc,, they just know they are meant for each other.

[dotherightthing]

These birds are not meant for each other, birds, Penguins do not know what they are doing they are animals. When you project your feelings and social prejudeces on other animals a grave mistake has been made because animals don't feel like humans can. Reason and higher inteligence is what sepaerates humans from animals.
If projecting human traits on animals then why can't one say that those Penguins are lost and confused and wrong for commiting lust improperly!!!

[Human]

Clearly these are two messed up penguins. Obviously introducing female penguins was the right move, but unfortunately they succumbed to the anti-heterosexuality demands of gay activists'. "In the zoo's defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction" No need for defense, the zoo did nothing wrong at that point, actually they were doing what was right. These penguins need to be separated from each other immediately.

[Jim]

I'm gay and I think it was wrong not to try to get them to mate with females. Bisexuality exists across as many species as homosexuality does; if there was a chance they could produce offspring isn't it worth it to sustain their species? It's not like the human race which could certainly use less mating individuals. These penguins need help to reach sustainable numbers!

Users "Human" and "dotherightthing" should read up more on animal intelligence and emotion. He/she would be very surprised at what the scientific research and tests show. Humans aren't the only animals that laugh, love, reason, fight, cheat, steal, protect, build, fear, grieve, feel guilty, and dream...
recent studies show even *mice* laugh when playing with each other or get tickled! At one time laughter was thought to be the only complete difference between man and other animals- now we know lots of animals laugh. And we know lots of animals are homosexual throughout their lives. The only thing that seems to separate humans from the rest is our extremely high intelligence. Unfortunately, our ignorance is apparently on par though.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090616/sc_livescience/samesexbehaviorfoundinnearlyallanimals

[PasserBy]

"(In the zoo's defense, Humboldt penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so it does make a certain amount of sense to be concerned about them reproducing. And since Z and Vielpunkt have done just that, everyone wins!)"

Hey, clueless wonder -- there's a big difference between taking a fertilized egg from a female penguin and "reproducing". They did the former, not the latter. Go back to freshman biology and stop torturing science simply to make an illogical pro-homosexual point.

[Mike]

Here's a paradox. Many people call being gay an alternative lifestyle. If you have no choice by being born gay, then where is the alternative?

[Rita]

Even if these penguins were gay, which is a conclusion on very shaky ground, I should hope that humans would expect more of themselves than of animals!

[Connor]

To Others who keep commenting on why the pro-gay side are relating to these penguins. I believe the reason is this... People like Rita, have tried to claim that homosexuality is not natural, as in nature. I think that the pro-gay side is just showing how that there are creatures on this planet in NATURE that exhibit homosexual pairings.

[Corby]

The reason why is because this is somethign in nature that HARMS NONE, much like homosexuality doesnt harm the human race. Yeah, you can say if everyone were gay we'd go extinct. Well DUH, but not everyone is gay.

I am gay and wouldnt change for anyone. My family and friends accept me, my boss accepts me, i have a partner that loves me and we attend a United church of Christ congregation that accepts us. so why the heck would i want to listen to you bigots who say Im wrong. Im happy, im not hurting anyone, i pay taxes, I have a clean criminal record, i go to church, and im gay. Don't like it? Then dont look, i dont want you in my life anyway.

[PE Davidson]

The German zoo in 2005 didn't 'nix the idea' because of the protests. The male penguins showed no interest in the females; THAT is what nixed the project. Perhaps the LA Times could put a bit more effort in getting the correct information.

[Rebekah]

To Sabio: the fact that you said "that's the way I was raised" is perfect proof that you have never thought about it for yourself. That line itself "that's the way I was raised" is just another way of saying "I didn't use my own brain to figure it out."

[kcjones]

Rebekah - You do know what satire is, don't you? Sabio was making a joke. I'm 99.9% sure that that person doesn't believe what they wrote.

As for the term "pro-gay?" One cannot be pro-gay -
to be "pro" something means that you want it to exist. Homosexuality, bisexuality, already exists. It is not a choice, though if it were, the choice to love is always a positive, no matter to whom.

Penguins, I believe, mate for life. One can call the force that brings them together love or instinct, but when all is said and done, actions speak louder than words and the fact that two male penguins can raise a healthy baby proves that there is nothing wrong with same gender parenting.

[Lily]

There are lots of things that people don't choose to be born with/have. That doesn't necessarily mean they are natural (in the true sense of the word) or intended. And as to what the article says about these two penguins "reproducing", they most certainly did not; they merely cared for an egg which was produced by a male and female penguin. Homosexual sex inherently CANNOT produce new life, and that is the essential reason why it is unnatural and disordered.

[Larry]

Being gay implies a lot more than hatching and egg or having same-sex experiences. The term is social and political as well as sexual. Two guys (or two male penguins) can have "gay" sex without being gay. Straight guys have sex with gay guys frequently. And being gay is not a choice nor are you born that way. No one ever choose to be gay, there is no gay gene and there are no gay babies. Sexual orientation is learned as a result of family dynamics, modeling, operant conditioning etc.