Same-sex couple become New York zoo's first gay penguin parents

Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A New York zoo announced a mated pair of male penguins have become the facility's first same-sex penguin couple to become parents.

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse said Humboldt penguins Elmer and Lima were chosen as foster parents for an egg taken from a breeding pair with a history of inadvertently breaking their eggs.

The zoo said Elmer, hatched in 2016, and Lima, hatched in 2019, incubated the egg for several weeks, and it hatched into a healthy chick.

Officials said Elmer and Lima have been warming and feeding the chick in the same way a successful breeding pair would.

The zoo said Elmer and Lima, the zoo's first same-sex penguin parents, were tested with a dummy egg before becoming foster parents.

"Some pairs, when given a dummy egg, will sit on the nest but leave the egg to the side and not incubate it correctly, or they'll fight for who is going to sit on it when," Zoo Director Ted Fox said in the zoo's announcement. "That's how we evaluate who will be good foster parents, and Elmer and Lima were exemplary in every aspect of egg care."

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo has hatched more than 55 Humboldt penguin chicks since joining the Species Survival Plan for the vulnerable species in 2005.

"Elmer and Lima's success at fostering is one more story that our zoo can share to help people of all ages and backgrounds relate to animals," Fox said.