Ginger men, the world needs your sperm. Like, now.

Well, well, what do you know, rangas are finally having their day in the sun.

The global network of sperm donors, Co-ParentMatch.com, has put out an urgent call for ginger sperm donors. Turns out their female members want red-haired offspring (now!), but ginger sperm is surprisingly hard to come by these days.

#SaveGingers

Co-ParentMatch.com posted the rather unusual Facebook callout with the hashtag #SaveGingers, to encourage followers to “tag a ginger mate who would make a great donor.”

According to their data, only 2 per cent of their sperm donors have ginger hair, and like truffles or diamonds or white peacocks, ginger sperm is suddenly feeling very rare and special indeed. 

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCoParentMatch/posts/1419091841503858:0

Um, why? 

Redheads have always been unmissable targets in the school playground (I know, I was one of them), so why are parents suddenly wanting ginger babies? We can only speculate, but there have been a lot of fabulously talented redheads seeping into pop culture in recent years: Ed Sheeran, Prince Harry, Amy Adams, Emma Stone. Not to mention the fictional redheads who are gracing our screens and pages: The Weasleys, Anne of Green Gables, and GOT’s Ygritte.

Certainly the rarity factor is also at play here, since making a redhead is a serious genetic roll of the dice. To even stand any chance of making a redhead, both parents have to carry the red hair gene, since it’s a recessive trait. And still, even if both parents carry the gene, there’s only a one in four chance that the baby will be ginger. Small odds – especially considering that just over 0.5 per cent (or one in 200) people are redheads. 

Don’t panic though: redheads are not about to die out

All of this panicky demand for ginger sperm makes one wonder if redheads are on the decline. There were some rumours a while back that gingers might suffer from climate change-induced extinction (more sun = less redheads) … but the jury is definitely still out on this wobbly theory, since redheads are still happily procreating with each other – albeit on a small scale. 

So. The big question is, how does a strapping ginger dude donate to this worthy cause? Co-ParentMatch.com is asking men to register and add a profile, get tested, then let the donations begin.

Good luck guys.