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Watch: Same-sex flamingo couple hatch 'adopted' chick at England Zoo

By Stephanie Weaver
Published  August 14, 2024 10:58am PDT
Pets and Animals
KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco

Same-sex flamingo couple hatch 'adopted' chick, footage shows

Same-sex parenting is a recognized behavior among Chilean flamingos and other bird species, according to the Paignton Zoo. (Credit: Paignton Zoo/Wild Planet Trust via Storyful)

The Brief:

    • A same-sex flamingo couple successfully hatched an ‘adopted’ egg at England’s Paignton Zoo.
    • Footage shows the male Chilean flamingos with the newly hatched chick.
    • The most likely scenario is that the egg was abandoned by another couple, so the pair ‘adopted’ it.

UNITED KINGDOM - A zoo in England recently showcased an extraordinary event: a same-sex flamingo pair successfully hatched an ‘adopted’ egg. 

The video, provided by Paignton Zoo/Wild Planet Trust, features Curtis and Arthur, a male Chilean flamingo couple, with their newly hatched chick.

According to Pete Smallbones, the zoo's bird curator, same-sex parenting is a recognized behavior among Chilean flamingos and other bird species. He speculated that the egg was likely abandoned by another pair, leading Curtis and Arthur to adopt it.

Chilean flamingos are classified as near-threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

A same-sex flamingo couple successfully hatched an ‘adopted’ egg at England’s Paignton Zoo. (Credit: Paignton Zoo/Wild Planet Trust via Storyful)

The newly hatched chick, along with three other chicks and several eggs in incubation, is part of Paignton Zoo’s conservation breeding program.

Same-sex behaviors in animals

According to the National Wildlife Federation, same-sex behaviors in animals are not new, and homosexual behavior is more common among nonhuman animals than scientists once acknowledged. 

The organization said researchers have observed such activity in more than 1,500 species. 

RELATED: Flamingos form cliques within their flocks, new study finds

"These aren’t rare anomalies," author Eliot Schrefer wrote in "Queer Ducks (and Other Animals)," a young-adult book that drew national attention to the issue in 2022. "An explosion of research over the past 20 years has shown significant amounts of same-sex sexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom."

The Source:

  • The information for this story was provided by Paignton Zoo/Wild Planet Trust and the National Wildlife Federation. Storyful contributed. The story was reported from Los Angeles.