Dashik and Yehuda, two male vultures at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo who made headlines ten years ago for their gay romance, have since gone straight. But, if recent events at the zoo are any indication, the birds still appear to be operating on the same wavelength:
"Dashik, father to one vulture chick, and Yehuda,
father to the other, once engaged in a fiery romance that made
headlines in local and international media. About ten years ago, the
two male vultures fell in love, built a joint nest and became a couple.
The staff of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo provided the couple with an
artificial egg, which the two parents took turns incubating; and 45
days later, the zoo replaced the egg with a real baby vulture. The two
male vultures raised the chick together. A few years later, however, the relationship broke up, after Yehuda
fell for a female vulture that was brought into the aviary. Dashik
became depressed, and was eventually moved to the zoological research
garden at Tel Aviv University. There, Dashik too set up a nest with a
female vulture.
'This is an insane coincidence,' said Michal Erez, head of the
birds section at the Jerusalem zoo, 'but the spouses of both Yehuda and
Dashik laid an egg on the same day, the eggs hatched on the same April
day, and the two chicks were exactly the same weight. Their weight can
vary between 120 and 200 grams, and I've never seen two hatchlings of
the exact same weight.'"
