Lesser Flamingos: San Diego zoo’s male flamingo couple becomes first-time dads

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 outstanding 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 maintaining the chick happy because of a hearty serving to of crop milk daily,” stated the San Diego Zoo.

The duo had beforehand demonstrated their parenting skills with a dummy egg earlier this yr. Consequently, 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 might act as foster feeders. Because the chick’s begging calls set off the secretion of milk, the dad and mom progressively lose their pink color, which they regain as soon as the chick turns into unbiased.When the chick is sufficiently old, it can 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 yr, 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 dad and mom, resembling a sandcastle. These nests can attain as much as 2 toes in top, offering safety from rising water. After hatching, the chick is roofed in gray down feathers, in regards to the dimension 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 era it can depend on crop milk for sustenance. Similar-sex co-parenting within the fowl world is extra widespread than usually realised, with species like penguins and vultures additionally reported as foster dad and mom in zoos worldwide.