Regal and beautiful birds, swans are admired by all. And how could it be otherwise? After all swan is symbol of everlasting love, purity and fidelity. But it so?
Not according to the results of the recent study conducted by Australian ornithologists. Love and fidelity of swans, as it happens, is a myth now dispelled by scientists.
“Swans have long been renowned as symbols of lifelong fidelity and devotion, but our recent work has shown that infidelity is rife among black swans,” said Raoul Mulder from the University of Melbourne’s zoology department.
He and colleagues tested the DNA of many cygnets and found that one in six (17%) is the product of an illicit encounter. (The Myth of Monogamous Swans.)
Interesting that about a quarter of “married” black swan couples are formed by homosexual males. Often a couple of males temporarily teams up with a female and, after she lays eggs, they cruelly expel her from the nest.
In fairness it should be noted that while scientists have traced only for a type of black swans, so it is hoped that the white swans behaved more decently.
This fabulous bird is a royal heron otherwise known as 
Shoebill can stand still for long hours in shallow water. 
Shoebills are well adapted to life in the marshes — their long legs with wide apart toes allow them to move easily through the mud.
The bird is most active at dawn, but sometimes it hunts during the day.
![Shoebill [C]](https://valentinagurarie.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/d0bad0b8d182d0bed0b3d0bbd0b0d0b27.jpg?w=593)
This is
But when the skies finally clear and the powdered snouts of several dozen volcanoes appear through the clouds, all else melts away and you understand that you’re in a special place. 
No matter what you went through to get here, no matter how long you’ve spent grounded, it was 
The study, released on Tuesday, found that a whopping 32 percent of all plastic packaging escapes collection systems and finds its way into natural ecosystems, including the oceans.
Currently, 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year — the equivalent of a dump truck of plastic rubbish every minute.
This small tribe found itself on the verge of extinction because European colonists enslaved them and ranchers stole their land. And yet they live in harmony with nature in the jungle, that shrinks and vanishes all around them.
Very few people have ever met Awá. Photographer Domenico Pugliese was one of those lucky ones to have spent time with this remarkable tribe and even becoming a source of entertainment for them.
Most Awá families keep several tame wild animals, which are tenderly breast-fed by the women of the tribe until they grow up.
Awá people keep wild pigs, squirrels, parrots and large rodent agouti, but their favorite pets are monkeys.
Primates are an important food source for Awá, however, if the monkey has been breast-fed as a baby, they will never eat it. Even if such monkey returns to the jungle, they would recognize it as a hanima — a member of the family.
Out of tens of thousands of Awá population, who lived in Maranhao 500 years ago before the Portuguese colonists arrived, only about 400 people survived. About 60 of them have never had contact with the outside world.
Many died of diseases brought from overseas — smallpox, measles, influenza and others. Surviving people were enslaved and forced to work on rubber and sugar cane plantations.
In 1835, after centuries of oppression, Maranhao tribes rebelled against the European invaders. During the 5-year-old uprising, about 100 thousand indigenous people were killed.
After that, Awás were forced to take up a nomadic way of life to avoid the genocide. Over the next 200 years, they have become skilled hunters and learned how to build home in a few hours, and a day later abandon them and hit the road again. As a result, to a large extent, people have lost their agricultural skills and even the ability to start a fire.
In the Primorsky Safari Park, 
“Sometimes the tiger displays hunting behavior while on the walks with his friend, the goat. Timur tries to mimic the moves of the predator,” the director of the safari park Dmitry Mezentsev told to the Interfax.
Some days, when Amur and Timur walk in the park, the tiger allows the goat to drink from his water bowl.
The other evening, one of the park’s employees tried to lead the goat away from the tiger for the night. Timur got scared and run back to Amur’s side. Mightily stressed, Timur calmed down only when Amur was in close proximity.
Contra Spem Spero... Et Rideo 
