It takes a lot of effort for swans to appear undignified; their elegance is coveted by dancers and divers alike. But when it comes to the heat of the battle, all that illustrious grace is forgotten鈥. Sometimes it gets so brutal that the two competitors will become hopelessly entangled, leaving them at the mercy of people passing by.
Brothers Alexander and Vitaly Drozdov discovered this tautly entwined twosome alongside a Latvian river in 2009 (their video only just went viral after being picked up by ). The siblings run a and frequently go birdwatching in the area. Carefully, one of the brothers unwinds the Mute Swans鈥 necks, wings, and feet, after what must have been an especially vigorous spat between the birds.
While tussling over territory, male Mute Swans will arch their necks over the competitor鈥檚 body, and use their beaks to bite each other鈥檚 back feathers. Locked in this violent grip, they continuously flap their wings to try and disarm one another. Usually, the weaker swan gives in and finally retreats鈥攂ut it鈥檚 not uncommon for them to get knotted up before that happens. When the swans are this convoluted, they can suffer some serious damage. 鈥淕iven how much they were [stuck together], I would have guessed they would have eventually drowned or starved if these people hadn't found them,鈥 Brian K. Schmidt, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum鈥檚 Division of Birds, told National Geographic.
Such awkward accidents are seen in other birds, too. During courtship, Bald Eagles lock talons and spiral towards the earth in a nail-biting display; it typically ends as the birds break free, just before striking the ground. But in some cases, their talons become ensnared, leaving them to live with the embarrassment of being named the 鈥鈥, or being cited for in a very public setting.
Luckily, for most birds, this isn鈥檛 a death sentence鈥攁s long as there鈥檚 a human around. At the deft hands of their rescuer, the Latvian swans were set free, and with a shake of their tail feathers, the birds went on their separate ways鈥攖heir swagger fully restored.