Gay penguins become internet sensation after rearing an egg together

Two male penguins at a Sydney aquarium have won the hearts of the internet after falling in love and rearing an egg.

Sphen and Magic, who are collectively known as 'Sphenic', started to become close before penguin breeding season, after staff noticed they were often waddling around or swimming together.

However, as the breeding season approached, it was thought that they might find a female mate to breed with.

That didn't happen and, although they can't reproduce, they still found the means to create a nest out of ice pebbles and care for an egg.

Initially, the staff at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium gave the pair a fake egg to care for in case they weren't capable of looking after a real egg.

When they noticed how good they both were at caring for the egg, they replaced the fake with a real egg that had come from another couple who had one to spare.

Sphen, who is the older of the two has shown to be more skilled at incubating, whereas Magic is still perfecting the art.

According to news.com.au, visitors to the Macquarie Island inspired exhibit can sometimes not see the egg at all, which is a very good sign for penguin breeding.

They are already local hit in Australia, news of Sphen and Magic has since found its way on to Twitter and people are loving it.

The aquarium has also been embracing the social media love with some excellent replies to a handful of tweets.

Let's not forget that Parks and Recreation predicted that this would happen years ago.

Not everyone is happy, though.

Some people are a little puzzled by the pairing of the two penguins' names.

Oh, and there are those folks who are questioning whether the penguins are actually gay or not.

Like, when did everyone become an expert on the sexual orientation of flightless aquatic birds.

HT The Daily Dot