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Flamingo Dads Raise Abandoned Chick

Two male flamingos, a same-sex couple, are raising an abandoned chick and the adorable trio has become the envy of social media.

After its biological parents vacated their nest, keepers at Whipsnade Zoo placed the lone American flamingo egg in an incubator to increase its chance of survival, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Keen to give the chick a shot at family life, the team picked out Hudson and Blaze, devoted dads, to become adoptive parents.


The couple were already taking “excellent care” of their shared nest and keepers decided they were the best candidates among the whole flamboyance (the collective noun for a group of flamingos) for the job.

Tim Savage, bird team leader at the zoo in Bedfordshire, explained how flamingos tend to work together “as a monogamous pair” to look after their eggs and subsequent chicks. “Hudson and Blaze were the clear choice for the incubated egg, as they have always proved to be ideal parents,” he added.

Once the chick had hatched, the couple sat with it for two weeks, keeping it warm and protecting it from other flamingos, who Savage said “often squabble and shove around different nest sites.”

He continued: “Fluffy grey flamingo chicks are fed with bright red “crop milk,” which is made by both male and female parents. It is made in the linings of their digestive tract and contains fat, protein, and blood cells. You can often spot the new parents in a group because they give so much of their own pigment to their chicks that they almost turn white!”

Footage of the family has engaged many social media users. One person Tweeted: “Gay flamingo dads cheering me up today.”

“Queer was always here,” another added.

Whipsnade Zoo said it had encountered same-sex flamingo pairs and trios before. Penguins had also been known to form same-sex pairings during breeding season.


Read related myGwork articles here:

Yale Study Suggests That ‘Different-Sex Sexual Behavior’ Is Not Considered The Norm In The Animal Kingdom

Same-Sex Penguin Couple Fostering Second Egg


Gay Penguin Couple Adopted an Abandoned Egg in Berlin Zoo



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