'Gay' penguins get chick

'Gay' penguins get chick

 Gay’ Penguins Get Chick, As Alanis Morrisette once sang, isn’t it ironic? (Don’t you think?) In China, a country in which LGBT rights are extremely limited, a same-sex penguin couple not only married but have been given a baby chick to adopt. Meanwhile, in Canada, which legalized gay marriage in 2005 and is one of the world’s leading countries in recognizing LGBT rights, a same-sex penguin couple is being separated and encouraged to mate with female penguins. However, there’s much more to the story to understand.


Two male penguins at Harbin Polarland in China were married in 2009, complete with a wedding service. They had previously stolen eggs from other couples during hatching seasons. However, they eventually proved they had exceptional nurturing skills when given abandoned eggs to incubate. (Male penguins share incubation duties with females in the wild.)

They have now been given a baby chick to help rear, from a penguin mother struggling to raise twins.

A male penguin couple at New York City’s Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo, garnered attention after they attempted to hatch a rock and were later given an abandoned egg to care for. They successfully raised a female chick.

However, what is interesting to note is that the male pair eventually separated in 2004, with Silo bonding with a female partner.

Similarly, a same-sex male penguin couple at the San Francisco Zoo also broke up when one of the males paired with a female penguin in 2009.