'gay vultures' return to the closet
Jerusalem Biblical Zoo's 'gay vultures' return to the closet
By Varda Spiegel, Haaretz Correspondent
Jerusalem's conservative religious population may welcome the news that the city's legendary "gay vultures" have "returned to the closet."
Yehuda, the remaining "gay" vulture in a pair of male Griffon vultures that built nests, mated, and raised three adopted chicks for a period of three years, has finally chosen a female partner, Jerusalem Biblical Zoo director Shai Doron said Wednesday.
The first stirrings of Yehuda's new relationship coincided with Valentine's Day, Tuesday.
Last year, Yehuda's longtime partner, Daishik, took up with a new female partner and was subsequently moved to the Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan Zoological Center.
In 1997, zookeepers first noticed that the two male Griffin vultures in the zoo's flagship breeding and reintroduction-to-nature program were exhibiting all of the signs of mating behavior, including building a nest and copulating.
They also rejected all female overtures.
The zoo decided to provide the "gay couple" with a plaster-filled dummy egg to see what they would do. Yehuda and Daishik astonished their keepers by brooding in turns. Impressed by their devoted "incubation" of the artificial egg, keepers decided to introduce a chick and, once again, the male vultures' superb parenting skills exceeded all expectations.
The decision to let the male vultures raise chicks was not merely motivated by curiosity. Female vultures lay only one egg a year, unless that egg is removed from the nest - in that case, the mother will lay another egg in a process called "double clutching."
Allowing Yehuda and Daishik to step in as "surrogate mothers" presented the potential of increasing the numbers of nearly extinct Griffin vultures.
Despite the fact that Yehuda showed all the signs of depression one would typically expect from a scorned lover when Daishik opted for a lifestyle change, zoo director Doron was happy to see first Daishik and then Yehuda choose female partners. "We have no intention of making any attempt to reintroduce the male vultures.
"The Griffon vulture breeding and reintroduction program is one of the zoo's most important conservation projects, and we prefer to see the new couples go on to breed so that we can release their nestlings in nature."
Via Haaretz.com
By Varda Spiegel, Haaretz Correspondent
Jerusalem's conservative religious population may welcome the news that the city's legendary "gay vultures" have "returned to the closet."
Yehuda, the remaining "gay" vulture in a pair of male Griffon vultures that built nests, mated, and raised three adopted chicks for a period of three years, has finally chosen a female partner, Jerusalem Biblical Zoo director Shai Doron said Wednesday.
The first stirrings of Yehuda's new relationship coincided with Valentine's Day, Tuesday.
Last year, Yehuda's longtime partner, Daishik, took up with a new female partner and was subsequently moved to the Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan Zoological Center.
In 1997, zookeepers first noticed that the two male Griffin vultures in the zoo's flagship breeding and reintroduction-to-nature program were exhibiting all of the signs of mating behavior, including building a nest and copulating.
They also rejected all female overtures.
The zoo decided to provide the "gay couple" with a plaster-filled dummy egg to see what they would do. Yehuda and Daishik astonished their keepers by brooding in turns. Impressed by their devoted "incubation" of the artificial egg, keepers decided to introduce a chick and, once again, the male vultures' superb parenting skills exceeded all expectations.
The decision to let the male vultures raise chicks was not merely motivated by curiosity. Female vultures lay only one egg a year, unless that egg is removed from the nest - in that case, the mother will lay another egg in a process called "double clutching."
Allowing Yehuda and Daishik to step in as "surrogate mothers" presented the potential of increasing the numbers of nearly extinct Griffin vultures.
Despite the fact that Yehuda showed all the signs of depression one would typically expect from a scorned lover when Daishik opted for a lifestyle change, zoo director Doron was happy to see first Daishik and then Yehuda choose female partners. "We have no intention of making any attempt to reintroduce the male vultures.
"The Griffon vulture breeding and reintroduction program is one of the zoo's most important conservation projects, and we prefer to see the new couples go on to breed so that we can release their nestlings in nature."
Via Haaretz.com
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