AssetID: 53256897
Headline: RAW VIDEO: Melbourne Zoo's Gay Swans Make Eggs-ceptional Parents To 3D-Printed 'Offspring'
Caption: Melbourne Zoo’s pair of gay swans are practicing their parenting after keepers used 3D printing to create artificial eggs for the loved-up couple. Australian black swans Billy and Elliot live on a billabong in Melbourne Zoo’s Australian Bush habitat. Both stayed at the zoo after being rescued following dog attacks, as they could not be returned to the wild. This southern hemisphere spring the doting duo have been feeling a little frisky and have been courting - behaviour that is not particularly rare when no female swans are present. Melbourne Zoo Bird Keeper Ben Oliver says: “If they don’t have a female mate, they will often display to each other; we see them making beautiful shapes with their necks, vocalising and swimming on the water in a pair formation.” As well as having a romance, the male pair had also constructed a nest - and keepers have used 3D printing to give them a chance to exercise their parental instincts. Oliver adds: “We wanted to let them have the chance to explore their reproductive behaviours so we asked one of our volunteers, who can print 3D eggs, to make some we could put in the nest.” Zoos Victoria Volunteer Guy Pilens used a computer program and 3D printer to create a clutch of five dummy eggs, to the exact shape and weight of real swan eggs. Swan eggs are not the only reproduction in Guy’s repertoire, he has printed 20 different species of bird eggs for Zoos Victoria, from tiny little finch eggs to Emu eggs. While the male swans didn’t sit on the eggs, they did react to them when they saw them in the nest, giving the pair a chance to practice their protective and territorial behaviours.
Keywords: lgbtq,gay,homosexual,swans,feature,natural world,nature,melbourne,australia
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