After captivating audiences with their years-long relationship, Freddie Mercury and Lance Bass, the renowned same-sex Flamingo couple at Denver Zoo, have decided to part ways.
The zoo has described their breakup as amicable, shedding light on the fact that not all birds adhere to the concept of “lifetime mating”. They shared that within their flock of 75 flamingos, some couples do stay together indefinitely while others tend to change partners frequently.
The post shared on pride week conveyed:
“Happy Pride! We’re celebrating some of the diverse animal kingdom families who call the Zoo home, and today we’re featuring our fabulous flockstars, our Chilean and American flamingos! Flamingos are extremely social by nature and flocks consist of collections of partnerships. This includes not only male-female breeding pairs, but also strong bonds between same-sex pairs. While our famed, same-sex couple Chilean flamingo Lance Bass and American flamingo Freddie Mercury are no longer a pair, they were paired up for several years and acted as surrogate parents if a breeding pair was unable to raise their chick. Our flock is 75 birds strong, which allows our birds to flamingle with a variety of individuals and personalities, giving them many options on who to form associations with.”
Denver Zoo then provided a follow-up post to elaborate on the reasons for Freddie and Lance’s split.
“It seems like our flamingo post yesterday may have ruffled some feathers and we want to sincerely apologize…for leaving everyone in the dark so long as to why our same-sex flamingo pair Freddie Mercury and Lance Bass split up!
“Freddie repaired with Iommi, one of our fourteen-year-old female American flamingos. Iommi has been around Freddie for nearly her entire life without any indication of a bond before, so keepers aren’t exactly sure why these two decided to pair up. As for Lance, keepers haven’t noticed him in a new concrete bond with anyone else at the moment,” the zoo shared.
“Our flock allows our birds to choose who they decide to form associations with and we’re happy to celebrate their pairings this month and every month. Happy Pride!”
Back in 2019, Freddie, an American flamingo, and Lance, a Chilean flamingo, exhibited strong bonding behavior and even built a nest together. They were prepared to act as surrogate parents if necessary in the absence of a breeding couple.
Freddie, who arrived in Denver in the 1970s, had previously been in a long-term monogamous relationship with a female flamingo before meeting Lance.
As for 20-year-old Lance, born at the zoo, he has not yet formed a new bond with another bird, but there is the possibility of him finding a new partner as Denver Zoo is home to 80 Chilean and American flamingos.
