A same-sex penguin couple have become the heroes a zoo in Australia needed after adopting a second neglected chick.

The male-male couple first hit the headlines back in 2018 for their parenting skills, which were first noticed by keepers at Sea Life Sydney who saw them building a nest during the breeding season.

However, the pair weren't going to be able to produce a chick of their own, so staff at the zoo gave them a dummy egg to see if they could potentially be adoptive parents and the pair were naturals.

After that, the dummy egg was replaced with a real one that had been neglected by its parents.

Watch the announcement of the couple's second chick below: 

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Sphen and Magic went on to give the egg all the care and attention it needed and their first chick Lara was born in 2018.

Now, the family has welcomed its second chick after the same-sex pair were given another neglected egg from the most recent breeding season, which went on to hatch at the aquarium's Sub-Antarctic Zone over the past month.

In an interview with Sydney's Star Observer, a spokesperson for the zoo explained that penguins can sometimes have too many eggs, or they are simply not very good at looking after them.

When this happens, staff will sometimes "foster these eggs out to other pairs like Sphen and Magic", adding that the same-sex pair have " proven to be good parents in the past", which is why they were entrusted with another egg.

Kerrie Dixon, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium's Penguin Supervisor, said of this year's chicks: "We are beyond excited to welcome the new penguin chicks to our colony. They are doing really well and gaining weight. They started at around 95 grams, now our oldest is almost 2kg and the youngest is sitting at around 399 grams."

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Penguins are one of many animal species where same-sex couples exist and the zoo said that they are "fortunate to have our own male-male pair."

The spokesperson continued: "Just like our other Gentoo parents, Sphen and Magic are attentive and incredibly caring and we feel privileged to have such an amazing duo in our colony."

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Sphen and Magic's first chick Lara continues to thrive at the age of two, and according to keepers, she surprises them by "every day with how independent she is."

In fact, Lara is now so grown up that she tried to hatch an egg of her own after setting up a nest with a partner this year, but she was unsuccessful and will likely try again next year and hopefully give Sphen and Magic "a little grand penguin chick."

At the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium in Australia, caretakers noticed that two male gentoo penguins, Sphen and Magic, had become inseparable. During breeding season, the pair were constantly seen swimming together and waddling around together. Then they began presenting each other with pebbles, a clear sign of romantic interest. (For penguins, pebbles are like diamonds, demonstrating they wish to become a couple.)

The aquarium quickly noticed Sphen and Magic had formed a serious bond. "They recognized each other’s signature calls and songs," said Penguin Department Supervisor Tish Hannan. "Only bonded penguins will be able to successfully find their partner using their calls when they are separated." When the couple constructed a nest out of stones, caretakers provided them with a dummy egg to practice incubating.

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Unlike many mammals, male and female penguins play the same parenting roles, and split the duties 50/50. During the incubation period, one parent sits on the egg, while the other stands guard, protecting their nest from thieves and nosy neighbors. After Sphen and Magic displayed natural skills and great excitement, they were given a real egg.

The offspring came from another penguin couple at the aquarium who happened to hatch two eggs. Usually penguins only have enough resources to raise one. The first-born chick tends to have a survival advantage because it is larger, leaving the second-born chick to struggle, or even perish, because it cannot compete. "Fostering the biological couple's egg to Sphen and Magic was the best outcome for all penguin couples and the future of their eggs," explained the aquarium.

On October 19, their fostered baby chick was born, weighing 91-grams. The aquarium tweeted a photo of the adorable bird, who is nicknamed Sphengic. "Baby Sphengic has already stolen our hearts! We love watching the proud parents doting and taking turns caring for their baby chick," said Hannan. Now Sphen and Magic are proud dads, and their baby is a viral sensation, just like them.

You might be wondering, is Baby Sphengic a boy or girl? The aquarium don't know yet. As they explained in a tweet, male and female penguins don't have any physical differences, so gender can only be determined by DNA. They can't perform a test now, because it's dangerous to draw blood from a newborn, so they plan to do so in two months. (And I'm sure it will be the most adorable gender reveal party ever.)

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In some parts of the world, the LBTQ community still faces prejudice, and is denied equal rights by their government. Some ignorant people even have the nerve to howl that homosexuality "isn't natural." And at the same time they say that, gay penguins are living their best lives. "Because we have given Sphen and Magic the opportunity to have a potentially successful breeding season, it is very likely that they will return to each other again next year,’ said Hannan.

A same-sex penguin couple has become parents after the egg they had adopted and nursed finally hatched.

The incredible news was revealed by the Oceanografic Park and Aquarium in Valencia, Spain, in a touching Facebook post.

Translated from Spanish, the post revealed that Electra and Viola, two female penguins from Oceanogràfic València, had successfully hatched another couple's egg - giving them their first chick.

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The Facebook post added that same-sex couple formations are common in more than 450 species in both nature and zoos, but Electra and Viola's arrival marks the first time it had happened for Oceanogràfic València.

Check out the adorable chick with its moms in the video below:

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An article on the Oceanogràfic València website revealed that keepers first noticed Electra and Viola showing signs of being a couple when they started building their own nest out of stones.

Deciding that it would be best to let the penguin pair start their own family, the zookeepers decided to take a fertile egg from another couple and give it to Electra and Viola.

The gender of their new baby chick is unknown as blood tests cannot be carried out until the chick is six weeks old.

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The unnamed chick is one of three new additions to have been born into the colony of 25 gentoo penguins this breeding season. The zoo also announced that couples Navi and Aquela and Bolo and Melibe also welcomed a chick.

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Per National Geographic, gentoo penguins "often form long-lasting bonds" and "are highly nurturing."

A post on the incredible birds reads:

"At breeding time, both parents will work to build a circular nest of stones, grass, moss, and feathers. The mother then deposits two spherical, white eggs, which both parents take turns incubating for more than a month. Hatchlings remain in the nest for up to a month, and the parents alternate foraging and brooding duties."

Congratulations to Electra and Viola! We cannot wait to see your family grow!

A pair of male king penguins are well on the way to becoming parents after adopting an abandoned egg at Berlin Zoo

. Same-sex couple Skipper and Ping have been previously spotted trying to hatch everything from stones to small fish in what has been a long road to parenthood, but it now finally looks as though their dreams are going to come true - much to the delight of their keepers.

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The happy couple were only able to start a family of their own after the sole female in the zoo’s group of six showed little to no interest in her egg, leaving it unguarded on the floor of her enclosure.

However, according to zoo employee Norbert Zahmel, Skipper and Ping didn’t need much encouragement before taking it under their wings. 

As Zahmel explained in an interview with the BZ tabloid, "We just had to put it on the feet of one of the guys, and he already knew what to do."

If you found this heartening, McDonald's have just opened a tiny restaurant for bees 

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He went on to reveal that the zoo hasn’t welcomed a newborn chick since 2002 and that a "A successful hatching would be great."

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Homosexuality is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, and Skipper and Ping would not be the first successful captive same-sex parents.

The BBC report that the penguins “at London Zoo joined in the city's Pride event this year, and Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium in Ireland even has a gay penguin majority, with eight out of its 14 gentoo penguins coupled up with a partner of the same sex.”

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In a statement released to Berliner Zeitung, zoo spokesperson Maximilian Jäger revealed that the two love-birds are “exemplary parents,” and “take turns to keep the egg warm" by swapping it between their feet and nestling it under a specially designed egg pouch. In the wild, this pouch is vital in insulating the embryo from the harsh Antarctic winter, but in Berlin it acts more as a snug cubby hole. 

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Despite the celebrations, there may yet be an unwelcome twist to the tale of Skipper and Ping. Jäger has also admitted that the zoo do not actually know “if the egg was fertilised,” which could mean that all their efforts are for nought.

BZ newspaper estimated that, if a baby is indeed on the way, that it should be due on or around the 4th of September. Until then, we can only hope for good news.

Two male Humboldt penguins at Rosamond Gifford Zoo in New York are doing a "great job" of raising their foster hatchling, the zoo's director has said.

While a number of zoos around the world have seen same-sex penguins incubate eggs and raise the resulting chicks together, penguins Elmer and Lima are a first for the Syracuse-based Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

In a statement, the zoo said it had previously seen at least two breeding pairs of penguins unintentionally break their fertilized eggs. So, in order to better the chances of successfully hatching a baby penguin, zookeepers tend to give an egg to a more successful pair of penguins.

Ted Fox, the zoo's director, said that incubating eggs takes practice and that not all penguin pairs are naturally good at it.

"Some pairs, 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 fight for who is going to sit on it when," he said.

"That’s how we evaluate who will be good foster parents - and Elmer and Lima were exemplary in every aspect of egg care."

On December 23, the zoo found that an egg laid by female penguin Poquita and her partner Vente contained a viable embryo. So, they proceeded to swap it with Elmer and Lima's dummy egg and allow the pair to incubate it instead.

The same-sex penguins took turns incubating the egg until it hatched, and, now, the pair are warming and feeding the chick.

"At our first health check when the chick was five days old, it weighed 226 grams (8 ounces)," Fox said. "It continues to be brooded and cared for by both Elmer and Lima, who are doing a great job. And once they have experience doing this and continue to do it well, they will be considered to foster future eggs."

This certainly isn't the first time that a same-sex penguin couple has fostered chicks.

Previous same-sex foster parents include Electra and Viola, two female Gentoo penguins at the Oceanogràfic Valencia aquarium in Spain; Skipper and Ping, two male king penguins at Berlin Zoo, and Eduardo and Rio, two male Magellanic penguins at San Francisco Zoo.

Featured image credit: JanP / Alamy