Fidelity of black swans

["martin butterfield" <>]

In the recentish past I have seen a few stories in the media about the fidelity (or lack thereof) of black swans.  I think it was the outcome of the reasearch described in http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_3433.html. 

 

A week ago I was looking from the Tadorna Hide and saw a male swan being very aggressive towards all other swans swimming up the creek.  Looking more closely at one of the islands I spotted another swan - presumably his female consort - sitting on a nest.  When I arrived at Tadorna yesterday two swans were in the water just in front of the island facing each other and twining their necks.  In a very short order copulation occurred.

 

At this point the female swam off, trumpeting loudly and the male resumed his patrolling of the area just in front of the island.  To my surprise, when looking more closely at the island the nest was still occupied by an apparently sleeping swan.  I don't think fidelity is quite the word for this relationship.

 

Martin