Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Swans are known to mate for life. So the recent break-up of a swan couple in England is causing a stir. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more about the couple and their troubles from Julia Newth of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Center in Slimbridge, England.

• Slimbridge Wetlands and Wildlife Trust

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: This next story is about the biggest break up of the past year.  Yes, bigger than Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.  We’re talking about Saruni and Sarindi.  They are two swans.  Bewick’s swans to be precise.  That’s spelled B-E-W-I-C-K.  You see, swans almost never separate, they mate for life.  But Saruni and Sarindi seem to have gotten a divorce.  Julia Newth is a swan researcher at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, England.  Julia, tell me what happened with this swan couple Saruni and Sarindi?  How do you know they broke up?

JULIA NEWTH: Well it’s quite an interesting story actually, very unusual.  Saruni and Sarindi have been coming to Slimbridge for a couple of years as a pair.  We know then by their individual unique bill patterns, so we can tell them apart.  This year Sarindi flew in with a new partner.  So we were kind of thinking maybe something untoward had happened to Saruni.  We were very surprised when a few weeks later Saruni also flew in with also a new partner.  So it’s quite a bizarre situation.

MARCO WERMAN: Do you know why these swans would have broken their mating bond?

JULIA NEWTH: Like I say, it’s very unusual.  They’re notorious monogamous, swans.  I mean a possible reason could be failure to breed.  They’ve brought no signets back to Slimbridge in the years we’ve know them to come here.  This could be a reason as to why they separated.

MARCO WERMAN: Right, signets are baby swans?

JULIA NEWTH: Yes.

MARCO WERMAN: How do you know from the start that they are a couple?

JULIA NEWTH: It’s usually quite obvious.  In the case of Saruni and Sarindi, they certainly spent all their time together in very close proximity.  Saruni and Sarindi always arrived together and departed on migration together in the spring as well, so they seemed pretty glued to each other up until this year actually.

MARCO WERMAN: Have you ever observed any other swan couples that broke up?

JULIA NEWTH: Well, we’ve been studying the swans at Slimbridge for over 40 years, and that’s included studying of 4,000 pairs and I’ve only ever known it to happen one other time, so it just kind of shows how unusual this is really.

MARCO WERMAN: So if swans typically mate for life, what about other birds?  Are they generally polygamous or are there other species that also mate for life.

JULIA NEWTH: Yes there are.  It does vary between different species.  Certainly the goose species, for example, will quite often be monogamous too.

MARCO WERMAN: And so Sarindi and Saruni, they returned with these two other new mates.  Where did they find them and where did they spend the rest of the year when they’re not in Slimbridge?

JULIA NEWTH: They’re migrating up to Russia every spring.  They spend the whole summer in Russia; that’s their breeding grounds.  They may have met on migration or even in the breeding grounds in Russia.

MARCO WERMAN: So they came back with illegal immigrants as mates.

JULIA NEWTH: That seems to be the case, yes.

MARCO WERMAN: Have Sarindi and Saruni had any contact since they both returned to the sanctuary?

JULIA NEWTH: Well it’s a very small lake and both from there and they’re only within yards of each other.  There’s been no obvious – - communication, interestingly although they would almost certainly recognize each other through their call and also probably visually as well.  But there hasn’t been any kind of aggression or anything that we’ve notice.

MARCO WERMAN: I guess we could say it’s going to be an awkward moment when the two birds and their new mates encounter each other at a tasty pile of breadcrumbs some day soon.

JULIA NEWTH: Yes.  It makes quite an interesting story.  We’re going to be watching very carefully for the next few weeks I think.

MARCO WERMAN: Is there, in the ornithology world a phrase for irreconcilable differences?

JULIA NEWTH: I don’t know.  Perhaps we could make one.

MARCO WERMAN: Swan researcher Julia Newth at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, England thank you very much.

JULIA NEWTH: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.