Meet Sphen and Magic, the only same-sex couple at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, who first bonded two years ago. It was around that time when the two were given a spare egg to hatch after they’d been hatching a rock.
Fast forward to today, their firstborn Lara is now out and about enjoying her adult life, but Sphen and Magic still have their parental instinct kicking.
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And now the Aquarium’s “power couple” has made everyone happy again by becoming proud dads for the second time. “If one of our pairs has too many eggs or are not good at looking after their eggs, we will sometimes foster these eggs out to other pairs like Sphen and Magic. We gave Sphen and Magic an egg to incubate as they have proven to be good parents in the past,” the Aquarium’s spokesperson said.
The staff described the pair as “attentive” and “incredibly caring,” which just makes them the most lovable penguin parents out there.
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Meet Sphen and Magic, the adorable gay penguin couple from the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
And they got some very exciting news—the pair just became proud adoptive dads to their second chick
Image credits: EqualityAu
The aquarium’s staff that specialize in penguins witnessed Sphen and Magic’s blossoming relationship that started back in 2018. They used to take swims together and wouldn’t part. Soon after the breeding season started, the couple began collecting stones for their love nest.
It was then that the staff noticed they were trying to hatch a rock and gave them a dummy egg to care for. Sphen and Magic left everyone so impressed by how well they cared for that egg that the members of staff decided they were ready to foster a real egg on their own.
Sphen and Magic were given another egg to hatch after they successfully hatched their previous newborn Lara
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
And the proud dads welcomed this beautiful tiny chick to their family!
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
In October 2018, the baby Lara was hatched and they first became proud parents to the beautiful chick. This year, the second egg arrived with other Gentoo penguin babies that hatched in the Aquarium’s Sub-Antarctic Zone.
“We are beyond excited to welcome the new penguin chicks to our colony. They are doing really well and gaining weight. They started at around 95 grams, now our oldest is almost 2 kg and the youngest is sitting at around 399 grams,” Aquarium’s penguin supervisor said in a statement.
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
Same-sex pairings like Sphen and Magic are very common in the animal kingdom with approximately 450 species exhibiting same-sex behavior. Meanwhile, the aquarium spokesperson explained that “penguins are among the many species in which male-male or female-female pairings occur frequently and we are fortunate to have our own male-male pair.”
The Aquarium’s spokesperson described Sphen and Magic as “attentive and incredibly caring”
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
If one of the penguin pairs at the Aquarium has too many eggs or are not good at looking after them, the staff gives the eggs to Sphen and Magic to foster
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
While their second chick is successfully growing, their firstborn Lara is being an independent penguin, leading a life of her own.
“Despite still being relatively young, she attempted to take part in this year’s breeding season. She and her partner set up a nest and carefully watched over it, but unfortunately weren’t successful in hatching an offspring.”
The Sydney Aquarium’s staff is excited about the prospect of Lara giving Sphen and Magic a little grand penguin chick. And we totally can’t wait for them to become grandparents too!
Take a look at the footage of how the lovely family is doing so far
Image credits: SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium
And this is what people had to say about the caring penguin dads
Source: boredpanda.com