The SEA LIFE London Aquarium has announced that a chick born recently to a female penguin pair will be the first penguin at the aquarium not to have an assigned gender. Regardless of gender, however, we know it will look good in a tux when it grows up!
Marama and Rocky, both Gentoo penguins, were given the egg to incubate after another penguin laid two. Keepers felt that giving one to another couple meant both eggs had the best chance of survival. The egg hatched four months ago, but instead of giving the new chick a gender-based name, as in past practice, keepers decided to acknowledge the species’ often more ambiguous expression of gender.
Graham McGrath, general manager at SEA LIFE London, explained to the Independent: “While the decision may ruffle a few feathers, gender neutrality in humans has only recently become a widespread topic of conversation, however, it is completely natural for penguins to develop genderless identities as they grow into mature adults.” Kudos to them for letting the yet-unnamed chick develop its own identity, in accordance with its nature.
The business of hatching an egg isn’t always easy, as other penguin news this week makes clear. Skipper and Ping, a male same-sex Emperor penguin couple at the Zoo Tierpark Berlin, had also been given an egg to incubate, but this week it “burst open” to reveal it had not been fertilized. The zoo tweeted, “Surely they will get the chance to become parents again in the future.”
For more on the many same-sex penguin parents around the world, see my roundups here and here.
Meet Marama and Rocky – our two proud new mummies of our lovely penguin chick! ????#Pride pic.twitter.com/FCFzAlEn12
— SEA LIFE London Aquarium (@london_aquarium) July 3, 2019