A male swan shunned by females for his deformed neck may finally have found a girlfriend after seven years.
Crinkly the ugly swan has become well-known at a Gloucester bird sanctuary, after flying in from Russia every winter since 2001.
"We were worried about Crinkly because he is such a strange-looking bird," said Jools Mackin, spokesperson for Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
Until now, none the females at the trust was prepared to mate with him but conservation workers say they can see signs of a budding romance.
"It is too early to say whether or not they are mates, but we'll be monitoring them over the next few days to see. At the moment they are associating on Swan Lake.
Experts at Slimbridge were amazed when Crinkly first arrived as a cygnet with parents Lucius and Coletta, with a strangely deformed neck probably caused by a birth defect.
1 comment:
I'm glad you posted this story; it's very sweet.
Good luck, Crinkly!
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