BLACK SWANS TAKE UP FEEDING OF CARP AS A HOBBY AT NATURE RESERVE IN CHINA

The birds dip their dry feed in the water to moisten so its easier to swallow

The carp caught on to where the food was coming from and crowd around

 

By Damien Gayle for MailOnline

 

This is a scene you probably won't spot at the pond down at your local park. Dozens black swans at Shenzhen Safari Park seemed to be feeding carp.  The hungry fish thronged by the banks of the lake as the graceful black birds craned their long necks to feed them mouth to mouth.

 

The credulity stretching scene is a regular occurrence at the Guangdong Province zoo, where keepers said the swans have been feeding their carp friends every day for the past ten years.

 

But why? Of course there's a perfectly reasonable explanation, and its not that the swans and carp have made some kind of unholy cross-species alliance. 

 

Zoo keepers told the Guangzhou Daily the black swans are not consciously trying to feed the fish, but it is a habit that has developed over time.

 

The swans' feed consists of rather dry pellets, the keepers said, and the birds got into the habit of dipping them into the water first to make them more palatable.  Once the feed is moistened, it makes it easier for the long-necked swans to swallow.

 

The carp started getting involved after stray pellets drifted into the middle of the lake.  They soon realised where it was coming from and now they are comfortable coming right up to the birds and eating it from their beaks.

 

Shanghaiist reports that the black swans and koi carp have been happily coexisting in this way since 2004.

 

Watch video  - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2795488/rarer-sight-black-swan-birds-feeding-carp-hobby-nature-reserve.html

 

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