Two male lesser flamingos on the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have turn into first-time dads after efficiently hatching an egg collectively.
The Guardian reported that the couple, each of their 40s, have demonstrated exceptional parenting expertise, alternating brooding duties and nourishing their chick with nutrient-rich crop milk.
“The pair have perfected their fatherly duties by alternating brooding tasks and conserving the chick glad due to a hearty serving to of crop milk on daily basis,” stated the San Diego Zoo.
Two Male Flamingos at Safari Park Elevate Foster Chick
Dads on responsibility 🦩Two male lesser flamingos are fostering a chick after exhibiting off their parenting expertise with a dummy egg earlier this 12 months. Wildlife care specialists sneakily swapped a fertile egg into their nest, permitting one other pair of flamingos to double-clutch and lift a second hatchling. The pair has perfected their fatherly duties by alternating brooding tasks and conserving the chick glad due to a hearty serving to of crop milk on daily basis.
Posted by San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Thursday, September 26, 2024
The duo had beforehand demonstrated their parenting skills with a dummy egg earlier this 12 months. In consequence, wildlife care specialists swapped a fertile egg into their nest, permitting one other flamingo pair to double-clutch and lift a second hatchling.
Curiously, each female and male flamingos can produce milk and even non-parent flamingos could act as foster feeders. Because the chick’s begging calls set off the secretion of milk, the mother and father progressively lose their pink color, which they regain as soon as the chick turns into impartial.
When the chick is sufficiently old, it’ll transition to a pellet weight-reduction plan designed for all flamingos on the zoo, which incorporates the required vitamins and pigment to keep up their iconic pink hue.
This isn’t the primary time same-sex flamingo pairs have efficiently fostered chicks. Earlier this 12 months, an identical occasion occurred at a UK zoo with male flamingos Curtis and Arthur hatching a chick.
Flamingos sometimes lay a single giant, chalky white egg in a mud nest constructed by the mother and father, resembling a sandcastle. These nests can attain as much as 2 ft in top, offering safety from rising water. After hatching, the chick is roofed in gray down feathers, in regards to the measurement of a tennis ball, with a straight pink invoice and pink legs that flip black inside every week.
The chick will stay on the nest mound for five to 12 days, throughout which period it’ll depend on crop milk for sustenance. Similar-sex co-parenting within the chicken world is extra widespread than typically realised, with species like penguins and vultures additionally reported as foster mother and father in zoos worldwide.
