Two male lesser flamingos have become parents for the first time, after the San Diego Zoo Safari Park same-sex duo successfully hatched a chick.
The pair were well prepared for fatherhood, having been given a dummy egg to look after earlier this year. Once staff at the zoo were satisfied that they were up to the job, “[w]ildlife care specialists sneakily swapped a fertile egg into their nest,” said the zoo in an Instagram post.
Of course, an egg and a walking, squawking chick are two entirely different things – but it’s been smooth sailing ever since the adorably gangly flaminglet hatched too.
“The pair has perfected their fatherly duties by alternating brooding responsibilities and keeping the chick satisfied thanks to a hearty helping of crop milk [regurgitated digestive tract secretions – sorry if you’ve just eaten] every day,” the post added.
According to the zoo, lesser flamingo chicks like this one stay on the nest mound for around five to 12 days, bulking up on the food provided by their parents. It’ll then be ready to leave the nest and join a gang of its fellow fluffballs in a crèche (the name for a flock of baby flamingos), under the supervision of a few sharp-eyed adults.
This marks the second time in recent months that same-sex flamingos in zoos have successfully hatched a chick; back in August, over in the UK, Paignton Zoo flamingo couple Curtis and Arthur became dads to the first Chilean flamingo chicks hatched at the zoo since 2018.
Neither is an unusual case; same-sex parenting has been documented in a whole host of different birds, including multiple penguin species, swans, and even vultures.
In the wider animal world, same-sex behavior as a whole is also common, though it’s thought to be reported much less frequently than it’s found.
“Whilst it has only been officially recorded in around 1,500 species, this figure is likely a massive underestimate,” said Josh Davis, author of A Little Gay Natural History, in a recent interview with IFLScience. “This is because it can be found in pretty much every branch of the evolutionary tree, from beetles and butterflies to turtles and squirrels, so the idea that it is limited to just a few hundred species out of the 2.13 million described to date is incredibly unlikely.”
While the latest flamingo dad duo might not be the only same-sex foster parents out there, there’s certainly no denying that they’re doing an excellent job – no winging it to be seen.
