According to legend, swans all their lives keep loyalty to one partner, which became the reason for the emergence of phraseology “swan fidelity”. Check if this is really.

Everyone heard about the "swan fidelity". The troubadours dedicated songs to her, artists - paintings, and even a symbol of the heart, by one of versions, - This is nothing more than a silhouette of two swan Shei. However, people tend to attribute unusual qualities to animals, so scientists have repeatedly conducted research to find out if the swans are “monogamous” in fact.

In this case, it is enough to identify a more or less noticeable percentage of deviations in order to refute the legend. And the zoologists have tried to do this more than once.

In 2006, scientists of the University of Melbourne studied DNA of black swans and came to the conclusion that every sixth chick in representatives of this species is the fruit of “treason”. Dr. Raul Mulder then said: “Swans have long been considered a symbol of eternal fidelity and devotion. But our recent studies have shown that the promiscuity is widespread among black swans. ” Malder was especially surprised that the females managed to find new partners with a rather strict supervision from their spouse.

Another remarkable appeal of zoologists to the theme of Lebedina's fidelity occurred in 2010. A pair of individuals of the species Swan Buyik returned to the British county of Gloucester. And it turned out that every swan brought with him a new partner. This caused bewilderment among experts: over 40 years, a similar case of a “divorce” was observed here only once. And despite the fact that 4,000 swan steam live in the reserve. Therefore, this example can be called rather an exception to the rules.

They became interested in the issue in Poland. “Swans sometimes change partners after an unsuccessful reproduction season or failure with a nest,” speaks Radoslav Vlodarchik from the University of Lodzi. -Birds need one or two season to get to each other and start to multiply again. A new pair often gives birth to less swans in the first year, but in subsequent years, fertility increases. In Poland, the percentage of “divorces” among shywood swan is about 4%. ”

As you can see, the legend of the devotion of swans did not arise from scratch. With some exceptions (primarily we are talking about black swans), monogamy for these birds is a common thing. But almost all scientific sources converge in One: After the death of the partner, Swan quickly finds new. So the concept of “swan fidelity” in nature at least does not bear the meaning of “attachment until the end of its days”.