And, how about these gay flamingos?

I wish them health and happiness.

Carlos and Fernando, male flamingos at the Slimbridge wildfowl reserve in Gloucestershire, are inseparable.

They have been together for more than five years and have even reared foster chicks.

Twice a year they perform the elaborate courtship dance usual to males and females, before building a nest.

Homosexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom but few people know about it, according to zoologists. Keepers at Slimbridge said it was unique among their flamingos.

Nigel Jarrett, the reserve's aviculture manager, said: "They seem very happy. They will probably stay together for the rest of their lives.

"They are not picked on by the other birds. If anything they are afforded more respect because two males together can be a pretty fearsome prospect for the other flamingos."

The pair have reared three generations of adopted flamingos, by making off with the freshly laid eggs of their heterosexual neighbours