The Denver Zoo’s famous same-sex flamingo couple, Freddie Mercury and Lance Bass, have broken up after several years together.
The zoo slammed the bombshell last week in an otherwise celebratory Pride Month post on Facebook that noted that the flamingo herd consisted of a “collection of partnerships” that included “not only male-female breeding pairs, but same-sex There are also strong bonds involved between the couple.”
The post continued, “While our famous, same-sex couple Chilean flamingo Lance Bass and American flamingo Freddie Mercury are no longer a pair, they were paired for many years and acted as surrogate parents if one The breeding pair was unable to raise their own chick.
After several commenters demanded more information about what happened to the two lovebirds, the zoo posted a follow-up.
“Please rest assured that Freddie and Lance are both in good health, had not separated and their break up was amicable,” the zoo said. “Mating for life is not necessary for all birds, and our keepers have observed that some birds in long-term relationships sometimes decide to move on and mate with other birds.”
Zoo staff first saw Freddie and Lance together in 2014.
“We started seeing them hang out and spend a lot of time together,” bird keeper Brittany Weaver said in 2019. “We saw them participate in all those courtship behaviors. That’s when they finally made that nest, that’s when we found out.
Their split actually happened in 2020, zoo spokeswoman Carly McGuire told Denver’s Cusa-TV. Freddy, now 52, has teamed up with a 14-year-old female flamingo named Lomi.
Obviously, no one saw it coming.
“Lomi has been around Freddy almost his entire life without any signs of bonding, so the keepers aren’t exactly sure why the two decided to pair up,” the zoo said on Facebook.
Lance hasn’t been as lucky in love after a 20-year breakup. Zookeepers haven’t seen her in a “solid bond” with any of the birds.
