Two Female Penguins Become The Second Same Gender Penguin Couple After Sphen And Magic

In Australia in 2018, two male penguins Sphen and Magic were seen to build and protect their nest just before the breeding season. They were also observed to do other things what penguin parents did for their nests. Hence keepers gave them a dummy egg to raise and they did a good job raising it. Then they were given a real egg, which turned to be a beautiful little penguin girl which was named Sphengic! Like this Sphen and Magic became the first same sex penguin couple.

After Sphen and Magic, Electra and Viola are the second same sex penguin couple to raise a baby. On the same lines, Electra and Viola, were observed to have same breeding patterns and hence were given an egg to raise as well!

Their egg recently hatched and they welcomed a chick this month. They were observed to have amazing parental instincts and were also seen to build a nest together. So keepers gave them a fertile egg from a different penguin couple to see what happens. They successfully adopted and incubated that egg till the time it hatched, and now they are raising it as if their own!

“Both males and females have a strong urge to be parents and they share that parental responsibility 100 per cent between the two — it doesn’t matter if they have a male-male or female-female pair”, said the supervisor of the aquarium’s penguin department, Tish Hannan.

Zoo keepers in London as well as Berlin have also noticed same sex penguin couples.