FreetheLGBT Pride Month Fiesta

Day 16: Did You Know?

*Penguins have been observed to form same-sex pairs both in the wild and zoos. 

It has occurred multiple times in zoos where two male penguins were given an egg to incubate and they successfully hatched and nurtured the chick. Zoos have observed male penguin couples building nests together and substituting an egg with a rock. 

One well-known same sex penguin couple is Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins who lived in a New York zoo. As it happens, one of their hatchlings, Tango, formed a same-sex pairing with another female penguin!

*The spotted hyena was thought to be a hermaphrodite.

Female spotted hyenas are born with genitals that resemble that of their male counterparts. When young female hyenas mature, their genital shape changes to allow for mating. Because of this change in appearance, the spotted hyena was believed to be hermaphrodite. 

on top of this, dominant hyenas (including dominant females) have been observed to mount submissive ones regardless of their sex. 

*While most stories on Wattpad with male pregnancy may be fiction, the male seahorse actually does get pregnant. 

The males have a brood pouch in which the female will lay her eggs, which are then fertilised by the male in this pouch. The offspring will eventually hatch inside the pouch and the male will give birth to live baby seahorses. 

*It's estimated that 25% of black swan pairs are homosexual. 

Black swans are largely monogamous and pair for life, but 1 in 4 pairings is a same-sex pairing, with the majority being between males. The same-sex male couples tend to steal nests or temporarily form a nest with a female just to obtain eggs, driving her away after she lays them.