Gay penguins adopt an egg after months of trying to hatch rocks

A gay penguin couple are trying to hatch an egg together.

Skipper and Ping, two male king penguins residing at Zoo Berlin in Germany, arrived as a pair from another zoo in Hamburg in April. Zookeepers were able to tell the couple wanted to start a family soon after their arrival, since Skipper and Ping would take turns trying to incubate rocks and pieces of fish between their legs.

"It is very common that two penguins of the same sex come together," Zoo Berlin spokesperson Maximilian Jäger said. "I don't think it is the majority of penguins, but it is not rare either. We are sure they would be good parents because they were so nice to their stone."

Orange, a 22-year-old female named after her bright orange wings, laid an egg in July. Since she never hatched her own chick, zookeepers donated the egg to Skipper and Ping.

"We just had to put the egg in front of one of them, and he knew just what to do," Jäger said, according to the New York Times. "He took his beak and put the egg on his feet and then put his stomach over it, which is the normal thing penguins do."

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Skipper and Ping, a gay penguin couple, care for their adopted egg. Credit: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / Getty Images

Zoo officials aren't sure if the egg is even fertilized — CNN notes that incubation usually lasts 55 days, and the only way to tell is if the egg hatches in early September. Penguin keeper Anja Seiferth is hopeful, but told the New York Times"so far we do not know" how it'll play out.

"I hope Ping and Skip get a little penguin baby and become the best parents you've ever seen," she said. She did note that the couple has become more parental while trying to hatch this egg, though.

"They are a little bit angrier now, a little bit protective," Seiferth said. "They do not want us to come too close to them or too close to their egg. Before they had the egg they were very cool and were more relaxed. But they have a job now."

If the egg does hatch, then it'll be the first hatched penguin egg at Zoo Berlin since 2002.

This isn't the first time a same-sex penguin couple have raised a baby together. Last year, Sphen and Magic, two male gentoo penguins at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium in Australia, hatched an adopted chick. After building a pebble nest and "proving" their responsibility with a dummy egg, the couple was given a fertilized egg to incubate. Baby Sphengic, a female chick named after her adoptive parents' ship name, hatched in October.

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