Odd/Unexplained Wildlife Behaviors

Has anyone seen some weird wildlife behavior? I once saw a bunch of waterfowl walking in single file, with a domestic Greylag x Swan Goose in front, an adult female Mallard behind it, and 5 Mallard chicks. They continued this single file line for at least 3 hours. Does anyone know why this was, or has anyone else seen some other odd/unexplained wildlife behaviors they want to share?

 

I suspect the goose was male and imprinted on Mallard.

 

Then where did the chicks come from? They were certainly not hybrids.

 

A gander with that mindset will attach hinself to any family of downies. They have a strong paternal drive.

 

There's a single female Mute swan living on a small lake at a National Trust garden in Hampshire. There is also a resident pair of Canada geese. For several years past the Canada male has mated with the swan to produce one or more hybrid 'Swoose'. At the same time it also breeds with its own Canada partner. Swooses produced in the last four years(if I have it correctly) have been; Three(two survived), One, None, One. I went to try and see this year's one the other day but was forewarned that now its fullgrown it often flies off with the Canadas during the daytime, only returning in the evening, and that was the case, I only saw the swan mother on its own. Apparently each year the Swoose(s) disappears (flies away) around Christmas and doesn't return.

I saw the one in Dorset a few years ago. It appeared to be paired to a swan, which also had cygnets obviously fathered by a male Mute Swan.

 

I don't know what you'd consider odd behaviour, but I have a nice little story!

Once I was birding at the Strabrechtsche Heide (a Dutch nature reserve), which is a rather diverse place with several forest types, heath and some marshland surrounding several meres*. A friend and I were standing next to a very small mere when we heard a Water Rail calling. Water Rails are generally quite elusive, but as the mere was very small there were few placed to hide, so we thought we might be lucky this time. After searching for half an hour we were unable to find it, even though we had carefully inspected every part of the mere and every stand of reeds. Desperate, we were discussing where the bird could potentially hide, when a Eurasian Jay swooped over the water. While flying, the jay made a perfect imitation of a Water Rail's call, and we had our answer! I know Eurasian Jays are well-known for imitating various birds, but the fact that this one was imitating a Water Rail while hiding in rail habitat made us almost think he did it on purpose!

* I hope I'm using that word correctly. I'm talking about small and very shallow "lakes".

 

'mere' is perfectly correct in that context.

 

Any chance of a photo? Has anyone got one?

 

Theere are some on the internet- just type in Swoose images. There are a couple of one of the ones I am talking about here, and quite a lot of the Dorset bird(deceased unfortunately)

 

I've seen plenty of what could be considered "unexpected" or "suprising" behaviour but not really "weird" behaviour with species such as toucans, tanagers, marmosets, capuchin monkeys, maned wolf and giant anteater in the wild.

I would say , over 5 times that I've seen toco toucans raid bird nests of tanagers and flycatchers to feed on the nestlings and then these same birds being mobbed by flocks of smaller ones. This is unexpected and incredible to see , but I dont think it qualifies as weird or abnormal as toucans are known as nest raiders.

There are a few excellent Atlantic rainforest bird/nature reserves in Sao Paulo state where birdwatchers can get extremely close to species such as the green headed tanager, red necked tanager, saffron toucanette and plain parakeet. When I've visited these areas (as I often do) I've seen these beautiful birds steal food from peoples plates when they are dining , perch on coffee cups or on peoples hands / shoulders or on camera lenses/ binoculars. But again I don't think this would really qualify as being "weird" as its just a sign that these animals have become habituated to the human presence.

Similar to the example above , there is a 17th century monastery in Minas Gerais state famous for its resident maned wolves which live in the surroundings which are an extensive nature reserve/ national park. The maned wolves come up onto the veranda/ patio of the monastery garden to feed (they have been provisioned with food for decades now , but with the input of zootechnists and vets ) and visitors can see them very close up. Again, not "weird" behaviour given that they are habituated to human beings and provisioned with food but certainly strange given the temperament of these animals which is highly shy and notoriously evasive.

 

Thanks. I will look them up.

 

There is one for me
One time when birdwatching at the Whittier Narrows Recreation Areas, it was around April and the Canada Geese were having goslings. A family were taking photos and getting closer to a pair of Canada Geese and their goslings. I warned them how aggressive and protective they can be, the parent geese were in from to the goslings hissing and honking at them to go away and here’s the unexplained part nearby this got the attention of another gaggle flock of Geese who noticed it and joined in.

This got me thinking are the parents the only ones to protect the young or others of their own species even if the goslings aren’t there’s are very protective of them?

 

I had no clue that was even possible, but apparently it is. Also one of the Google results was one on Zoochat, here:

https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/swoose.382516/full

Looks like Black Swan though, and in a zoo?!

 

I haven't seen it in geese (although I have been hissed at by geese when I needed by a family with goslings on a path), although yes, there are instances of this among mammals and birds at least. Musk Ox forming a circle around the young when threatened comes to mind. Group-nesting birds will do it to some extent too. A lot of mothers will protect youngsters in danger, whether their own or not. Reptiles, amphibians, and fish not so much, due to the relatively little care from most species.

 

That one does look like it had a Black Swan parent- that's provided its a genuine swoose and not a goose hybrid.- I think it probably is. They are pretty rare though.

 

I never heard of any cross with a black swan. Has anyone else seen or heard of one??

 

Remembered one along this same line, but with mockingbirds instead of jays. I was working outside around noon, and suddenly I heard a whip-poor-will. As whip-poor-will live nowhere near me, especially the eastern species, I couldn't figure out what was going on until I saw a mockingbird singing atop a small tree. Presently he sang whip-poor-will again, confirming my suspicions. Then he launched into Carolina Wren, another species that lives absolutely nowhere near northern California! After a few expected species and his own phrases, he sang cardinal (again not a species that lives anywhere close to the area), and went back into expected species. The three species popped up sporadically here and there as long as I listened to him, but left me with a lot of questions. How in the world did he learn those songs? He was hundreds to even a few thousand miles from any of those eastern species he was mimicking. Mockingbirds are year-round in the area, a fact I knew from listening to other mockingbirds with distinctive phrases. An escaped cage bird? Maybe, but no indications of it. He would have had to been kept in quite a lucky area to pick up whip-poor-will, and then transferred all the way across the US. Perhaps he learned them from other mockingbirds picking up the phrases and passing them along. I feel the last explanation is the most likely, but who knows really.

 

Most recorded Sweese (Swooses?) involve a Black Swan as a parent.

 

The two cases I know of in the UK are with a Mute Swan- one was with a goose of indeterminate parentage but predominantly domestic African/Chinese(I think it was the mother), the other(several years running) with a Canada goose(the father).

 

"Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World" (Eugene McCarthy; 2006) records hybrids between black swans and the following:
• mute swan
• whooper swan
• tundra swan
• greylag goose
• Canada goose

I've never seen a swan x goose hybrid. Where is this National Trust garden, please? I'd like to visit to see the "swoose".