Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

‘Gay’ flamingo fathers raise abandoned chick as their own

Male pair took egg under their wings after it was rejected by biological parents at Whipsnade zoo

Charlotte Penketh-King
Wednesday 10 August 2022 12:13 BST
Comments
Flamingo parents raise abandoned chick at UK zoo

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Two flamingos dads are successfully raising an abandoned chick after keepers placed it in their shared nest.

Flamingo fathers Hudson and Blaze took the egg under their wings after it was rejected by its biological parents at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.

The lone American flamingo egg was initially placed in an incubator at the UK’s largest zoo after the parents ditched the nest.

But keepers at the Bedfordshire zoo moved it into one shared by Hudson and Blaze, who they deemed the best candidates amongst the whole flamboyance - the collective term for a group of flamingos.

They sat tight on the egg until it hatched and have been taking exemplary care of their new baby ever since, keepers said.

Bird team leader Tim Savage, said: “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.

“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.”

The baby chick is currently being raised on crop milk produced by the couple using the same hormone that regulates milk in mammals.

It is stimulated by the mother or father’s experience of sitting on an egg and watching the chick hatch.

Tim added: “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!”

Same-sex flamingo pairs have been encountered before at the zoo, as have trios whereby a mixture of male and female birds share one nest.

Penguins are also known to form same-sex pairings during breeding season.

SWNS

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in