Lesbian albatrosses to raise chick
February 4th, 2010 by Martina.Booth
A pair of lesbian royal albatrosses have welcomed a new addition to their family after incubating a chick in New Zealand.
The endangered female seabirds successfully incubated the chick at South Island’s Royal Albatross Colony, which has had three lesbian pairings over the past 70 years.
“One of them obviously mated so their egg was fertile. Only one egg was laid and that’s now hatched,” said a spokesman from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
At first the chick was said to be struggling, but is now doing well. Its father’s identity remains unknown, but the colony have said that the chick will be raised by two mothers.
After incubation duties, the female birds will take turns to look after the new chick, with one going out to sea to forage for food while the other protects it from predators.
Unusually, the chick is also one of 17 to hatch from 17 eggs at the colony - the first time in 16 years that the colony has had a 100 per cent success rate of fertile eggs produced in one season.
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