Welcome Denver gay parents and lesbian albatrosses

March 22, 6:49 PMDenver Gay Parenting ExaminerRene Rosechild

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Laysan Albatross

The new Denver Gay Parenting Examiner welcomes readers of all kinds, including the extensive lesbian albatross parent community.

When researchers monitored and tested a colony of Laysan Albatrosses in Hawaii recently, they were surprised to find out that almost a third of the nesting couples were same-sex female pairs. That’s probably more than Congress Park. Like many human same-sex female pairs, these birds are monogamous. What makes albatross co-parenting remarkable to ornithologists is that these birds only care for one egg at a time. The interesting question for biologists is—how does the co-mom reproduce? The answer turns out to be: they take turns. One year they care for one mom’s egg, and the following year the other.

According to Fox News, these females "behave just like male-female pairs," said researcher Lindsay Young, a doctoral student studying behavioral ecology at the University of Hawaii. "If a male comes up to one female in the pair, the second female gets really possessive."

It turns out that, contrary to popular conception, and Focus on the Family, same-sex coupling is common in nature. According to biologist Petter Böckman at the University of Oslo, it has been observed so far in around 1500 different species. (See Live Science for more on this. )

So future posts from the Denver Gay Parenting examiner may find me welcoming bears, gorillas, flamingos, owls, salmon and many others, especially you.