First it was New York and now it’s Bremer­haven. New York City’s zoo made money on their children’s book about Tango, the little girl chin­strap penguin raised by her two daddies, Roy and Silo. Now Bremer­haven has 3 or 4 gay couples among its Humbolt penguin population.

Carmen Jaspersen /​ Euro­pean Pressphoto Agency captured Z and Vielpunkt in their enclo­sure.

The Humbolt penguins are a slightly endan­gered species so the zookeepers decided to see whether Z and Vielpunkt could raise a chick. They’d tried intro­ducing females, to gay group outrage and no avail! The two penguins had tried incu­bating a rock which hadn’t been very successful. But when a hetero­sexual penguin couple tossed out this egg, the zookeepers gave it to these two. They’ve been exem­plary parents. They incu­bated an egg for 30 days and then since late April, they’ve been faith­fully feeding their young’un fish mash. (don’t ask, or i’ll recite my poem!) No word on gender of this happy lil guy. But their vet has proclaimed Vielpunkt and Z the best parents in the zoo!

Carmen Jaspersen took this shot of the happy chick.

I read a lot of arti­cles on this, but my favorite came from the LA Times: That article also tells the story of an inge­nious Chinese gay pair who attempted to steal eggs from straight couples, disguising their theft by leaving rocks in the nest. Orig­i­nally removed from the zoo, public outcries brought them back. They now have been given two eggs of their own. No word yet on their parenting skills.

Tip: Mother Nature would like you to know, it’s all about raising the chil­dren so that they’re healthy and happy. That happens best in happy families.