Two gay flamingo dads have adopted a chick who was abandoned by its biological parents. The feathered fathers came to the rescue at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo after the egg was rejected and initially placed in an incubator.
To increase its chances of survival, keeps decided to place the egg in the shared nest of flamingo couple Hudson and Blaze. Zookeepers felt this pair of flamingos were the most reliable candidates to raise the newborn chick in the entire flamboyance, which is the collective name for a group of flamingos.
Hudson and Blaze sat tight and waited protectively over their unborn chick - and since its hatched they have taking amazing care of the young one.
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"After the chick hatched in their nest, they sat with it for two weeks, keeping it warm and protecting it from other flamingos, who often squabble and shove around different nest sites," said Bird Team Leader, Tim Savage.
Same sex pairings are not a rare thing in the flamingo community and they have been encountered before at the zoo.
Additionally, trios have even been encountered before with a mixture of male and female parents in a group of three.
Tim added: "Flamingos usually work together, as a monogamous pair, to care for 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."
Newborn flamingo chicks can feed off bright red 'crop milk' which is made by both male and female parents.
"The milk 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," said Tim.
"The same hormone that regulates milk production in mammals, regulates the production of crop milk. It is stimulated by the mother or father’s experience of sitting on an egg and watching the chick hatch."
