Sydney’s sea life aquarium has announced that baby penguin chick Spenic, has been successfully hatched to two male Gentoo penguins named Sphen and Magic on October 19th, 2018. The two are reported to be doting on the baby.  

Before they were able to adopt their baby, the aquarium workers had often spotted Sphen and Magic waddling around and going for swims together as they mated. Later, they began to build a collective nest of pebbles and the aquarium gave the two a fake egg to look after. The penguin supervisor, Tish Hannan said that “There is no real difference when it comes to breeding behaviors between males and females.” 

She tells us that only bonded penguins will be able to find their partner by their signature calls and songs while they are separated. Also, that it’s very common to have same-sex breeding in the courtship behavior. Because the couple will likely have a successful breeding season, they are likely to return to each other in the next year. 

There is also another pair of gay penguins who stole a baby from “bad parents” at a Denmark zoo. Though the zoo had to intervene to return the chick to its parents, the keepers decided to give the pair an egg of their own to hatch. 

In the past, a couple named Roy and Silo were seen by staff trying to mate and hatch a rock as if it was an egg. They were given an egg from another pair and they ended up raising a female chick named Tango who later formed a relationship with another female penguin. The story was soon written into “And Tango makes three.” which became a popular children’s book. The themes focus on family, love, acceptance, and adoption. It has won multiple book awards.