Gay male penguins steal nest from lesbian couple

The pair pinched the lesbian penguins' eggs in an effort to become fathers. Photo / Dierenpark Amersfoort

A pair of gay male penguins at a Dutch zoo have made a desperate bid for fatherhood, stealing an entire nest of eggs from two lesbian penguins

This isn't the first time the pair of African penguins have tried to start a family, previously taking another bird's egg from their home at the Dierenpark zoo in Amersfoort.

Zookeeper Sander Drost said the penguins were a "very determined couple" and had nabbed the nest in an "unguarded moment".

Unfortunately, their efforts won't lead to a happy family for the broody blokes because in stealing the nest from a lesbian couple they have ended up with two unfertilised eggs.

Despite the fact that no chick is expected, Drost said the males are carefully tending the nest.

"Both birds brood on the eggs, they guard the nest alternately," he said in a statement on the zoo's website.

Same-sex pairings are not uncommon in penguins, and there have been instances of gay couples successfully hatching eggs.

A Sydney couple, Sphen and Magic, hatched and raised an egg at the city's Sea Life Aquarium.

The pair of Gentoo parents had always been close, collecting pebbles to build a nest during mating season.

Sphen even gave Magic a special stone to cement their relationship.

In 2017, a penguin chick was raised by two "mums" at Kelly Tarlton's aquarium in Auckland.

The aquarium fostered the chick with the two female king penguins after the chick's mother, Shaq, was abandoned by her male partner.

The two females, dubbed Thelma and Louise after the classic 1991 Hollywood road film, were the only same-sex couple at Kelly Tarlton's at the time.