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Carlos and Fernando are two homosexual flamingos that have been together for six years. They have been wanting a family of their own and over the years have been desperately stealing heterosexual couples eggs so that they may raise them as their own. Being both male flamingos, nature doesn’t allow them to naturally have a chick.

Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: “Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other Flamingos’ eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves”.

When an egg at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire was both abandon by it’s mother and father it seemed that Carlos and Fernando would be the perfect surrogate parents. There was no hesitation in thought that they would be perfect parents. They already raised three other chicks which they stole from other couples so they were already experienced in parenting.

For flamingos, as for humans, bonding with baby is vital. The parent birds need to hear cheeping from within the egg then see the chick hatch so that the bond could be made. The chick had already hatched so staff at the trust placed the abandoned youngster in a broken egg, taped it up and placed it in Carlos and Fernando’s nest. Soon afterwards it emerged good as new.

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“They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents”,

Jane Waghorn added, “They have really bonded with the chick and are very good at being protective parents”.

The couple can feed their chick without any female help, by producing milk in their throat. It will be two years before its sex of the flamingo chick is known.

Some experts might argue that Carlos and Fernando’s homosexual behavior is due to the instinct that flamingos sometimes pair with the same sex if they aren’t able to find another from the opposite sex.

Flamingos, although monogamous during breeding periods, usually find a different partner each year, making the enduring love of Carlos and Fernando all the more remarkable. Twice a year during mating season they only do that special courtship dance with each other, it seems like they are meant to be and that they are really homosexuals.

Homosexual behavior in animals is not odd at all. It has been observed in many species, including penguins, beetles, sheep, bats, dolphins and orangutans.