Aw, how sweet is this ...

'Berlin gay penguins adopt abandoned egg'

Two male penguins at Berlin Zoo have been caring for an abandoned egg since July in their long quest to become parents.
The same-sex couple, Skipper and Ping, are keen to have a chick of their own, and have even been known to "try to hatch fish and stones", spokesman Maximilian Jäger told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.
He said the two king penguins adopted the egg, which had been abandoned by the sole female of the species at the zoo, and are "behaving like model parents, taking turns to keep the egg warm" by nestling it on their feet under a flap of belly skin.
The are now doing their best to protect their precious charge from jealous rivals, after a little encouragement from their human guardians.

'Knew what to do'

"We just had to put it on the feet of one of the guys, and he already knew what to do," says zookeeper Norbert Zahmel.
The female in the group of six king penguins has shown little interest in her eggs recently, and the zoo hasn't had a chick since 2002."A successful hatching would be great," Mr Zahmel told the BZ tabloid.
The 10-year-old pair moved to Berlin from Hamburg's Hagenbeck Zoo in April, and have been inseparable ever since.

During Antarctica’s winter – a frigid night four months long – male emperor penguins huddle by the hundreds in the snow. The male penguins guard the eggs and keep them warm. Each male penguin puts his egg on his feet. He covers it with a fold of skin. In this way, he keeps it warm at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) while the outside temperatures can drop well below -30 degrees F (?35 degrees C).

For 65 days, each bird incubates an egg, huddled in large colonies with only feathers, fat, and each other to stay warm. The eggs may begin to hatch in July, but the male penguins’ winter vigil won’t end until around August when the sun peeks over the horizon.

By the time the female returns, sleek and full of food, the male may have lost 45 percent of his body weight. Ravenously hungry, he leaves to feed at sea.

With the exception of emperor penguins, partners take turns incubating eggs, allowing each mate to leave to feed for several days at a time.

A female emperor penguin transfers a single egg to the top of her mate's feet. The female goes to sea to feed while the male incubates the egg. She returns several weeks later, usually just before the egg is ready to hatch, to relieve her mate so that he may feed. The male fasts throughout the courtship, nesting, and incubation periods. He lives off reserves of body fat which may be 3 to 4 cm (1.2-1.6 in.) thick, and loses up to 45% of his body weight.
https://seaworld.org/animals/all-about/penguins/reproduction/

Kitkat wrote:Big thanks to your clever nephew, Whiskers, I've learned something new today. Does he read here in the forum? 

Thanks for the interesting link too.

Whiskers wrote:

Kitkat wrote:Big thanks to your clever nephew, Whiskers, I've learned something new today. Does he read here in the forum? 

Thanks for the interesting link too.

No, he doesnt read the forum, he is only 9. but his school went on a daytrip to Folly Farm in Wales and feeding the penguins was the highlight of the day for him.  He learnt all about penguin life from the friendly helpful keepers there and they were also allowed to feed them, tickled pink to learn that some penguin species are called macaroni , a new name now in the family for macaroni cheese is penguin cheese!  They all got given a cuddly toy penguin to take home and my nephews one is called Macaroni.