Love that the car at the back is like 'WTF is wrong with these losers? I'm gonna overtake!' Then it see the baby swans and it like, 'Oh! My bad.' And pulls in again.
@elodieunderglass
I find swan parenting so interesting and relatable. Although theyâre closely related to ducks, their strategies are entirely different. A mother duck is usually typified by being âcarelessâ with her babies, meaning that she just goes wherever without consideration for them, and they struggle to keep up; ducks donât really comprehend what terrain or situations are inaccessible for ducklings, so youâll often see a mother duck carelessly using stairs, or flying off a building or cliff, while her babies literally die trying to follow. Ducks arenât noted for their situational awareness, but this is really shocking to watch in the case of Mama Duck. She doesnât usually check behind her, canât manage them through complex situations, and gives no impression of even having any idea of how many babies she has (thatâs why itâs a good thing she often has 14 in babies a clutch, and can pull off 2 clutches a year; in the wild, most of these are expected to die, as a sort of background protein link in the food web.) (On a farmyard, you might give them to a broody hen to raise, as theyâll have a more attentive parent that way.)
Swans, by contrast, take two parents about a year to raise about seven babies, and they RAISE them. Theyâre very attentive and conscious of their childrenâs safety. Even in this short video you can see that one parent is leading the children while the other keeps an eye on the card, using body language to communicate with partner and cars. The straight fixed glare at the car not only gives the swan a better look, but is also the polite first indication that the swan wants space (blowing past this signal is one reason why human/swan interactions quickly become antagonistic.) theyâre walking very slowly and deliberately, which (unintentionally) forces the cars to treat them like pedestrians, but is an unusually slow pace aimed at making it very easy for the very young babies to follow properly.
I donât know. I just like swans. I like their confidence in the human world, and their firm belief that everyone can follow the Swan Rules and behave properly if they try. I like that they relate to us and therefore have expectations that weâll follow Swan Rules. They cross at the crosswalk because thatâs what is Done and they expect everyone to respect how things are Done. In every post about swans on social media there will always be several comments about how swans are violent and it will always be down to: âthey expect us to know how things are Done, and get mad when we donât.â
