BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhuanet) -- A gay penguin couple in a German zoo has hatched an egg that was rejected by its biological parents, and is rearing the chick.

    "Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their 'Easter present' and began straight away with hatching the egg," said the zoo in Bremerhaven Wednesday.

    Joachim Schoene, a zoo vet, said: "A pair abandoned an egg by pushing it out of their nest and so we placed it in the care of the homosexual penguins.

    "They accepted the egg immediately and took turns in incubating it with their body heat. They did this for 35 days and the baby was born on April 25.

    "It is in a little cave in the enclosure which is fiercely guarded by one or the other at all times so we don't know yet if we have a little boy penguin or a little girl one."

    The two daddies feed their offspring with fish mash that they chew up and regurgitate into its ever-open beak.

    "Homosexuality is nothing unusual among animals," the zoo said. "Sex and coupling up in our world do not necessarily have anything to do with reproduction."

    (Agencies)