A New York zoo is celebrating the first chick to ever hatch from an egg cared for by two male penguins.

The chick hatched at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in the city of Syracuse in the US state of New York last month as part of its internationally renowned Humboldt penguin programme.

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo said in a statement on 28th January: “The new chick hatched on January 1 to Elmer and Lima, two adult male Humboldt penguins who formed a pair bond for the current breeding season. Elmer hatched at the zoo in 2016 and Lima in 2019. The zoo’s penguin colony has 28 birds.

“The same-sex foster couple are a first for the zoo, which has relied on foster parents to incubate eggs in the past. The zoo has at least two breeding pairs of penguins with a history of inadvertently breaking their fertilized eggs.

“To give the eggs a better chance of hatching a chick, keepers may swap a dummy egg for the real one and give it to a more successful pair to incubate.

“Last year, the zoo’s first penguin chick, Opal, was the biological offspring of parents Juan and Rosalita – one of the egg-breaking pairs – and reared by another pair, first-time foster parents Luis and Calypso, who incubated her egg and fed and cared for her after she hatched.”

The zoo’s bird manager April Zimpel said at the time: “It was their first time fostering and they really knocked it out of the park.”

Zoo director Ted Fox said: “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.

“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 team determined that an egg laid by female penguin Poquita and her mate Vente had a viable embryo inside. They decided to swap it for the dummy egg and give Elmer and Lima a chance to incubate it. The pair did a great job of taking turns incubating the egg until it hatched and have been brooding (warming) and feeding the chick since.

“At our first health check when the chick was five days old, it weighed 226 grams (8 ounces). 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.”

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo said: “Humboldt penguins are native to the Humboldt current off the coast of Chile and Peru in South America. They are listed as Vulnerable, with the wild population declining due to habitat loss and climate change.

“The Rosamond Gifford Zoo joined the Species Survival Plan for Humboldt penguins in 2005 with the opening of its Penguin Coast exhibit.

“The zoo has since hatched more than 55 penguin chicks, many of which have gone on to participate in the SSP at other AZA institutions.”