Gay Vulture Dads
June 1, 2017 11:59 PM   Subscribe

Two male vultures have hatched a baby chick together. Congratulations to the happy couple!
posted by threetwentytwo (26 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I heard this on As It Happens tonight and it was the sweetest thing to listen to! I loved how much the zookeeper adored them. And how he kept saying that same sex couples were very common in the animal world and how they had chosen each other and there was no reason to think they wouldn't be great dads, if only they could get an egg to raise. And then they did!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:29 AM on June 2, 2017 [16 favorites]


Love that tag. !
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:35 AM on June 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Gay vulture dad joke:

What did the vulture dads say after their son wandered away from home?

"Carrion, my wayward son."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:08 AM on June 2, 2017 [58 favorites]


Q: What's a vulture's favorite practical joke?

A: A joy buzzard.
posted by mittens at 4:46 AM on June 2, 2017 [7 favorites]


Not surprised this is the Netherlands--they're so progressive! And just in time for Pride month! Love this and how happy the zookeeper is!
posted by stillmoving at 5:19 AM on June 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


The Gay Vultures would be a great band name. Really.
posted by jonmc at 6:08 AM on June 2, 2017 [7 favorites]


"Carrion, my wayward son."

When I tell it, this is the meal at the feast thrown for the return of the prodigal vulture.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:16 AM on June 2, 2017 [8 favorites]


This thread is the light in my covfefe darkness.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 7:10 AM on June 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Don't miss Gay Vulture Dads, coming to Tuesdays this fall on ABC!
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:25 AM on June 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


Love is love is love is love, even in the avian world.
Keep on with the great parenting, Gay Vulture Dads.

And, good on the zookeepers to use the discarded egg to give them a shot at it.
posted by Fig at 7:29 AM on June 2, 2017


The dads, together for years, had been mating and started building nests in January. However, neither could produce an egg; only female vultures can do that.

Kudos to Time for spelling out this detail.
posted by zippy at 7:35 AM on June 2, 2017 [11 favorites]


I read this story yesterday and was surprised the article didn't reference And Tango Makes Three - a wonderful children's book from 2005 about the 2 gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo who raised a chick together (Tango, because it takes two...). It is honestly a great children's book that I have given as a present many times. As same-sex parents, we found it a wonderful way to show our kids diversity in families, and a very gentle way to teach them that homosexuality is indeed found in nature, in case that myth was ever thrown at them.

Between that and the amazing The Family Book , our kids felt visually represented and ready for the world... My oldest are 11 now, and I've actually heard them refer to The Family Book when someone was wondering how a family could have two mommies.
posted by widdershins at 7:45 AM on June 2, 2017 [4 favorites]


The same thing happened in Germany last year!

A Pair of Gay Vultures Adopted an Egg Abandoned By Its Mother

Isis and Nordhorn, two vultures at the Tierpark Nordhorn Zoo in Germany, will soon (maybe) be proud parents to a lil' baby vulture featherball. Isis and Hordhorn are a gay couple, though, in what German newspaper Der Speigel calls a "committed relationship," and they've adopted the egg after it was abandoned by its mother.
posted by Omon Ra at 8:00 AM on June 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Don't miss Gay Vulture Dads, coming to Tuesdays this fall on ABC!

"Meet the Netherlands' favourite roadside family!"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:16 AM on June 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


It's condorable!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:25 AM on June 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


I can't recommend the book Biological Exuberance enough. Most of its 800 pages are profiles on a specific species and their sexual/social behavior. So, if you want to know about hot dude dung beetle on dude dung beetle action, this is the book for you.
posted by munchingzombie at 9:39 AM on June 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


What did one vulture dad say to the other when their offspring was throwing a tantrum?

Just keep calm and carrion.
posted by BlueHorse at 10:23 AM on June 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


None of the three birds in the family have been named.

how do you know, you don't speak vulture
posted by changeling at 10:26 AM on June 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


None of the three birds in the family have been named.

Cole, Noel, and Joel.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:04 AM on June 2, 2017


Laysan albatrosses often have female-only pairs, and one of the ones in the area of the Cornell albatross cam got their infertile egg replaced with a fertile one that had to be relocated, and so they got to hatch their first chick. Which was lovely, after several years of them sitting faithfully on the egg long after hatching time, until it finally broke due to being rotten.

The chick isn't the main star, but you occasionally see "Dos Mamas" in the distance.
posted by tavella at 11:09 AM on June 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Daan, Bram, and Sam
posted by achrise at 11:15 AM on June 2, 2017


This reminds me... my dad used to work for the Stuttgart Opera back in Germany. The opera is located next to a park with an artificial lake called the Eckensee (corners lake) because it's framed by straight edges all around. It's also full of swans. Back in, I think, the mid or late 80s, there was a couple of male swans that paired up together and they built a nest between some shrubs close to the opera building and sort of pretended to be nesting except, of course, they had no eggs. The opera's prop builders promptly decided to change this and made them a nice beautiful swan egg and plopped into the nest when the swans weren't there. For a long time after the two swans would take turns sitting on the egg and taking care of each other. The story even made the city's newspapers at the time.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:57 AM on June 2, 2017 [5 favorites]


> hot dude dung beetle on dude dung beetle action

That's an AO3 tag already, I bet.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:42 PM on June 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


hot dude dung beetle on dude dung beetle action

It's just how they roll, man.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:27 PM on June 2, 2017


Wasn't there a bit in Evolution's Rainbow or The Emperor's Embrace or one of those books about a species of duck/swan/goose where it's common for two males to mate with females, wait till they lay eggs, then hook up with each other and chase the females away so that they can raise the eggs together?
posted by clawsoon at 7:19 PM on June 2, 2017


Based on the title I was SO expecting something else.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:36 PM on June 2, 2017


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