Zoos are often a fun place to visit for budding animal lovers, but sometimes little surprises can emerge from them that turns everyone’s heads.
And as we’ve often seen, those surprises often come in the form of rare births and adorable little creatures that zoos can go more than a decade without seeing. And of course, it’s all the more exciting when that birth comes from an endangered species .
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But even the animals that we see a lot of can surprise us sometimes. And as if penguins weren’t cute enough on their own, one unexpected bond that’s emerged out of a New York zoo is about as adorable as it gets.
During the autumn of 2021, two male penguins at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York started forming a very close bond.
According to Good Morning America , they’re named Elmer and Lima and they mark the first same-sex pairing the zoo has seen among its penguin population.
In addition to spending a lot of time together and defending their territory from the 26 other Humboldt penguins at the zoo’s Penguin Coast exhibit, they’ve shown other tell-tale signs of how close they’ve become.
As zoo director Ted Fox said, “Last fall, Elmer and Lima were noticed to be carrying rocks around together, which is kind of an early stage of courtship and looking for a place to potentially build a nest.”
He added, “They were very much interested in each other from early on and were showing all the exemplary signs of pairing and forming of a strong pair bond.”
This happened to come at a time when another pair wasn’t showing much aptitude at taking care of their eggs, so the zoo staff gave one to Elmer and Lima to incubate.
Apparently, this was pretty easy because penguins can’t tell their eggs apart from those of other pairs.
After Elmer and Lima took turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm for a few months, their adopted chick would hatch on New Year’s Day.
As we can see, the one-month-old chick is currently brown, but will soon grow gray juvenile feathers and will eventually turn black and white like his foster parents.
And while the still-unnamed chick only weighed about eight ounces at five days old, he’s also growing quickly.
Moreover, he’s showing every sign that he’ll grow up to be a “confident and well-rounded penguin.”
In Fox’s words, “This chick seems to be very outgoing and is already coming to the front of the nest to look around and explore the outside.”
As for the little penguin’s name, that will likely be determined after consulting local schools and community members. It’s also common for Humboldt penguin chicks to get a Hispanic name to honor their species’ native regions.
One notable exception is Elmer, who was named after the glue that once held his damaged egg together.
h/t: Good Morning America
