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Royal albatross hatchling born to lesbian mothers

Two nesting albatrosses successfully incubate and hatch a chick they are raising.
By Helen JupiterWed, Feb 03 2010 at 6:52 PM EST  6 Comments

Photo: angela7dreams'/Flickr
You don’t have to look very far to find a dispute over homosexuality these days. Should gay marriage be legal? What about openly gay people serving in the military? And how does marriage inequality affect the kids of same-sex parents?
 
While these heated debates continue to rage among Homo sapiens, the animal kingdom appears unperturbed when it comes to homosexuality.
 
This past June MNN told you about Z and Vielpunkt, the gay penguins that tenderly hatched and raised an abandoned chick. More recently, we told you about how new research has documented the prevalence of homosexuality in over 450 vertebrate species, and how in some cases it’s actually the norm. Recent studies have even suggested that homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom is a nearly universal phenomenon and may even be a necessary biological adaptation for the survival of the species.
 
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that London's Independent newspaper is reporting about another set of feathered friends who are unruffled by same-sex unions: a pair of female royal albatrosses at a New Zealand breeding colony that have successfully incubated a chick. 
 
Wildlife experts and rangers at the Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Centre were thrilled, if not a bit surprised, when the two females set up a nest together. They’re one of only three such instances that the colony has recorded in more than 70 years, and they’re the first to successfully hatch a chick.  According to the Independent: 
 
Sam Inder, the manager of the centre, said: "It's an unusual situation because we've had a triangle with one male and two females for the past couple of years, and obviously that hasn't been terribly conducive to getting on with a breeding programme. This year the male left the trio, but obviously not before he had mated with one of the females."  
 
While the male has not been seen since flying the coop, the chick’s two mothers are doing an excellent job of balancing the responsibilities of guarding and feeding their hatchling.
 
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    bonding does not equal sex

    Posted By Jason - Sun, Jul 25 2010 at 9:51 PM EST

    Pair bonding is not necessarily sexual, otherwise all friendships male male, female female or male female, would be called homosexual. They are not. Unless there was a sign of the two females seeking to engage in sex it is not sexual, merely a pair bonding. SO far, the highest lesbian sexual animal (speaking on he evolution scale) are lizards, whereas males often engage in homosexual relations in nature.

    Royal Albatross lesbians

    Posted By PJ - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 6:03 AM EST

    If you will do a google on the other so-called "gay" couplings of penguins and vultures, you will find they went back to normal male/female couplings, yet this does not get trumpeted in the news. Many female beasts hang together and help raise each other's brood (elephants are an example), but that does not mean they celebrate the abstract sexual behaviors of humans.

    Just as I got irritated when asked if my close friend and I were lesbians simply because we enjoyed each other's company, I.... More

    You know what's even more annoying?

    Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 7:35 PM EST

    People who can't accept facts that are laid out for them in plain English and make up phony information to contradict it out of spite.

    Lesbian albatross

    Posted By PJ - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 9:37 PM EST

    Typical comment of yet another person imposing human sexual behavior onto animals. I have owned all kinds of household pets and farm animals over the years. When stressed or in an abnormal environment, (zoos for example) they do all kinds of peculiar things. Same-sex pairing is common for many reasons - not gayness.

    Did you read this?

    Posted By James - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 1:12 PM EST

    http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom/

    wrong photo

    Posted By cjr robertson - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 3:04 AM EST

    Enter your comments here
    Pity you have photo of 2 x Galapagos Albatross and not the Northern Royal albatross you are trying to talk about

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