Bostons "Rome and Juliet" swans are both female..

[drlloyd11]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Science/story ... 434&page=1



There has been talk of renaming them. How about Willow and Tara?

"Aug. 13, 2005 — Boston sure loves its swans.

Each spring when they return to the Public Garden the Mayor leads a grand parade and hundreds of kids arrive dressed as swans and ducks. They even nicknamed one swan duo that never leaves each other's side "Romeo and Juliet."


Only, it turns out neither swan is Romeo — they are both female.

This happy same-sex couple exhibits all the behaviors of two heterosexual swans that have mated for life, said Dr. Frank Beall, general curator Zoo New England, where the swans live in the fall and winter.

"They build nests together, incubate eggs together and defend their territory together," he said. "They're deeply bonded."

The swans might never have been outed as a same-sex couple if it hadn't been for their eggs — and The Boston Globe newspaper.

The swans have laid eggs for the past two years, taking turns incubating the eggs and guarding them. An excited public awaited baby swans, but the eggs never hatched. "

-edited because of my totally lame cut and pasting

[urnofosiris]

I love swans. To me they are the most graceful of birds or indeed of all the creatures in this world. Well not counting the way they walk, heh. They do mate fore life, faithfully, I guess that means there will be no baby swans for them. That makes me kind of sad, I wish someone could manage to slip a few fertilized eggs into their nest.
I have heard of a couple of gay female storks that did occasionally mate with a male just to produce offspring and remained together otherwise chasing the boys away.

[WebWarlock]

That is cool.

So who can we email to get their names changed!

Warlock

[Anne860]

Reactions from Bostonians have been mixed. Some are calling them a symbol of acceptance and tolerance, with a nod to the fact that Massachusettes is the first state to legalize gay marriage. Others are calling for the city to buy "real Romeos," male swans for the girls.

As of now, the Parks Department plans to do no such thing.

No Plans to Introduce a Male

"Swans do mate for life," Beall said. "If you introduce a male at this point, he will likely be driven off."

That part is especially funny. People actually think you can change the lifelong behavior of these birds by just throwing a male at them. Because that works so well with humans.

I have heard of a couple of gay female storks that did occasionally mate with a male just to produce offspring and remained together otherwise chasing the boys away.

Same sex couples are not that rare in birds, really. It's been observed in penguins for years.

Male black swans have been known to mate and aquire offspring either by finding a nest and driving the female off, or by one of them mating with a female, then taking over the job of sitting on the eggs after they're laid. What's interesting about this is the fact that the male swans (possibly because of their larger size, which might give them a better chance of aquiring food and defending territory) have a better chance of successfully raising offspring. Male same sex pairs account for less than 5% of all mated black swans, but swans raised by male pairs account for about 15% of the total population in many areas.

In other words, being raised by a same sex couple is actually more beneficial for a swan than being raised by a male-female pair.

Anne860