Lesbian albatrosses to raise their chick
Two females set up 'unusual' family unit after successfully incubating egg
When two female royal albatrosses at a New Zealand breeding colony embarked on a lesbian relationship, there were some raised eyebrows. But when the pair successfully incubated a chick, wildlife experts were delighted – and surprised.
The father – one of scores of males at the Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Centre on the South Island's wind-swept Otago Peninsula – appears to have disappeared. He will play no role in the upbringing of his week-old chick and, just like an increasing number of children, this bird will grow up with two mothers.
"It's quite unusual in the albatross population here at Taiaroa Head to have two females mating together," Lyndon Perriman, the colony's head ranger, told Television New Zealand. "Even more unusual than that is that the egg is actually fertile this season."
While homosexuality is well documented in the animal kingdom, including among seabirds, Taiaroa Head – the only mainland albatross breeding colony in the world – has recorded only two previous instances of females setting up a nest together in the past 70 years. Neither resulted in a happy ending.
The latest pair had tried nesting with a male albatross during two previous breeding seasons, but the threesome did not work out. This time, the two females took turns sitting on the egg.
Sam Inder, the manager of the centre, said: "It's an unusual situation because we've had a triangle with one male and two females for the past couple of years, and obviously that hasn't been terribly conducive to getting on with a breeding programme. This year the male left the trio, but obviously not before he had mated with one of the females."
The male has not been seen since, and Mr Inder told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "My personal view would be having to live with two women might be just a bit demanding."
Initially, rangers at the centre were not sure whether the female pair would stay together, so they tried them out with a dummy egg. When they proved to be good parents, the original egg was returned to the nest. Now the ladies are taking turns to guard the chick and fly out to sea to fetch food.
There are about 140 royal albatrosses on the colony with wingspans of nearly 10 feet. This season 17 chicks have hatched from 17 fertile eggs, a rare 100 per cent success rate.
Following widespread coverage of the newborn albatross with two mothers, including in the gay press, Tourism Dunedin is now canvassing suggestions for a name for the chick.
It is not the only same-sex pairing within the animal world on the Otago Peninsula, just south of Dunedin. Currently, two male yellow-eyed penguins – an endangered species like the royal albatross– are incubating an egg.
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Comments
how dare the Independent, in this day and age label this progressive, hard-working couple as 'unusual'! thus implying that the full burden of assumed guilt and shame of the rest of the colony should somehow be laid at their nest for daring to be 'different'. It shows that the re-education programme of the rest of sea-bird poulation is a failure and that they are still locked into a primeval male-dominated-monotheistic belief system. There is an overwhelming case for awarding the Albatross Centre an enormous and unrestricted grant to enable them to properly disabuse the remainder of the colony of any smug notion that heterosexual homemaking can any longer be promoted as 'normal'. Had this tragedy occured in North London, public money would hve been available instantly........ ;-)
Or are they jointly raising a chick?
This article is pure propoganda
Its a promotional advertisement for lesbians. There are many other animals who cooperate in looking after each others offspring. This observation implies sexual preference but that's theorising...
The Pope at heart believes in worshiping power and strength, and how to maintain it over people. That is the basis of his morality.
Fear is is tool, not love. Unfortunately all religions tend to gravitate to fear, rather than rational observation of the world around us.
The 2 co-wives now take turns looking after baby.
http://www.albatross.org.nz/news.ht
see the news item from Jan 18... and expect a reaction from the vatican.
"It's quite unusual in the albatross population..to have two females mating together, even more unusual than that is the eggs actually fertile this season," says Department of Conservation (DOC) ranger Lyndon Perriman.
The 2nd part of this sentence is nonsense - eggs from 2 lesbian albatrosses being fertile????
As for the 1st part - how did the 2 female birds attempt to mate?
Did just 1 of them try to impregnate the other or did they both try to imregnate each other?
If the same bird kept going on top of the other then all that means is that it seems to think it is a male!
i.e. a sick bird with its brain wires crossed!