Pride in the Wild
June is PRIDE month and our Refuge partners have put together resources for us to enjoy celebrating Pride in the Wild. “Pride in the Wild: Emerging Stronger Together” is the theme for the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s LGBTQ+ Pride observance this year.
Mōlī Pride
In celebration of Pride Month, we are spotlighting Laysan albatross (or mōlī in ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i) – one of many animal species that displays same-sex breeding behaviors including courting, intimacy, co-parenting, and forming decades-long monogamous partnerships.
In a population with fewer males than females, same-sex pairing among female mōlī has been observed for decades in Hawai‘i and has proved to be an adaptive reproductive strategy. Every breeding season, female birds in same-sex partnerships successfully nest, incubate eggs, and raise their chick together.
Parenting duties do not differ between the sexes with one exception – the female lays the egg, and the male takes the first incubation shift while she goes out to sea to feed and recover lost nutrients. In female-female pairs, while the pair will only incubate one egg, both birds may lay an egg. The female bird that takes the first incubation shift does not get time to recover before the approximately three weeks long fast required while she awaits her partner's return. During this time, she is more likely to abandon her egg than a male bird taking the first incubation shift. However, research suggests that if an egg hatches, female-female couples are just as successful at getting their chick to fledge as their male-female counterparts.
Why Some Mōlī Have Two Mothers
Laysan albatross colonies within the main Hawaiian Islands typically have a skewed sex-ratio with more female albatross than males. This is because Laysan albatross have female-biased immigration. In other words, females are more likely than males to immigrate from outer islands to new colonies on the main Hawaiian Islands.
With an abundance of females, male mōlī are selective when forming pair bonds. Female birds that are rejected by males, or prefer a female partner, will partner with one another and rely on a chance opportunity to copulate with a male and have their egg fertilized.
Both females can lay a single egg each year, but only one will ultimately be incubated. Mōlī, like all seabirds, can only raise one chick each nesting season. The physically demanding 60 days of egg incubation followed by 165 days of chick rearing is physically demanding and raising just a single chick to fledge requires two dedicated parents.
Continue reading the article by USFWS Ranger Laurel Smith and Kupu Intern Jaide Cooper online HERE.
Additional Resources:
Click HERE to enjoy a guide filled with fun activities and HERE to view images of nature filled with colorful pride.
