Elmer and Lima , two male person Humboldtpenguinsat the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse , New York , latterly became lofty parents to an as - yet - unnamed baby doll .
Their write up started during breeding season last fall , when the two penguins coupled up , constructed a nest , and protect their territory — behavior that made their human handlers think they might make good surrogate parent .
AsSmithsonianexplains , not all breeding penguins are model large parent ; some have a tendency to unexpectedly bust their bollock . ( In fact , Elmer survived a round the bend egg during his own brooding stop : The team patch it up with Elmer ’s mucilage , which then became his namesake . ) If thezookeepersthink another penguin pair might be well suited to the task , they ’ll move the inseminate testicle to their nest and give the biologic parents a fake one .
The zookeepers also used a fake egg as a test function for Elmer and Lima . “ Some couplet , when given a dummy egg , will sit on the nest but leave the egg to the side and not incubate it correctly , or they ’ll press for who is going to sit on it when , ” zoo director Ted Fox said in astatement . “ That ’s how we evaluate who will be good foster parent — and Elmer and Lima were model in every prospect of egg care . ”
So when another penguin yoke , Poquita and Vente , got significant in late December , Elmer and Lima were well - prepared to flex their fostering acquisition . They share brooding duties , and a healthy wench hatched on January 1 . Since then , the dads have diligently kept it warm and fed .
It ’s not the first time Rosamond Gifford has successfully used foster parent to rear penguin chicks , but Elmer and Lima are the zoological garden ’s first same - sex duo to get the gig . As long as they keep doing an monitory job , they may have a probability to foster more bird in the future .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
