A pair of same-sex penguins will raise a 'genderless' chick

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London (CNN) - A pair of same-sex penguins will raise a “genderless” chick for the first time, a London aquarium announced Tuesday.

Gentoo, the four-month-old penguin chick, will not be named or characterized as male or female, said the London Sea Life aquarium.

The chick is being raised by two female penguins, Rocky and Marama, who were given the egg to relieve the biological mother of the penguin from the pressure of raising two chicks.

It will be "the first penguin in the world that has no gender assigned," said Sea Life in London.

Aquarium experts generally give names to newborn penguins based on gender, but in this case “they decided that it was more natural for the chick to grow up and become a mature adult without gender, which is normal in nature until mature, ”the center said in a press release. The chick has been equipped with a purple tag on its wing so it can be identified.

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Charlotte Barcas, from the Sea Life Aquarium in London, helps to put a purple identification tag on the penguin that is not assigned its gender.

"While the decision may alter some feathers, gender neutrality in humans has recently become a widespread topic of conversation, however, it is quite natural for penguins to develop genderless identities as they become mature adults." said general manager Graham McGrath.

"What really makes us proud in the aquarium is the success of the Gentoo breeding program at Sea Life London and the incredible work of the same-sex penguins Rocky and Marama who took the chick under their wing and raised it as their own," he added.

Rocky and Marama were given the responsibility of raising a chick after showing up as a “close couple” during the last six breeding seasons and demonstrating that they could create nesting conditions to raise a chick, the aquarium said.

The penguin can later join the Sea Life London breeding program, "depending on the genus that determines its biology," the aquarium added.

Dr. Gemma Clucas, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, said male and female penguins showed little difference beyond biological characteristics, which required close observation and "difficult" to distinguish.

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"The two sexes in penguins behave very similarly to each other," he told CNN. “They look almost identical to each other. In terms of behavior they act in a very similar way also, particularly in terms of reproduction: both males and females invest equally in the breeding of their chicks. ”

Rocky and Marama are not the first parents of same-sex penguins: in August, two male king penguins in a Berlin zoo adopted an egg. Other zoos in London, Sydney and New York have also had same-sex penguin pairs.

Gentoo penguins have an “almost threatened” status on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, as a result of climate change that affects their feeding and nesting habits, said Sea Life London.