A pair of very close male penguins at a zoo in Madrid have been given their own egg to look after.
Penguins Inca and Rayas have been building a nest every six years in the hope of starting a family and have finally been trusted with an egg.
The Gentoo penguins have both thrown themselves into their new roles as parents, with Inca having taken on the ‘female’ role of incubating the egg, a task which he does most of the day, every day.
Meanwhile Rayas has been filling up on food.
This is to ensure he can take on the traditional male job of feeding his young with regurgitated fish.
Yolanda Martin, who cares for the penguins at Spain’s Faunia Park, said: ‘We wanted them to have something to stay together for – so we got an egg. Otherwise they might have become depressed.’
While she admitted that the pair were extremely close she emphasised that they were not actually gay, but simply the best of friends.
Inca and Rayas are not the first male penguins to be given an egg to care for, as staff at a zoo in China gave penguin couple Steve and Adam a chick to look after last year.
