- Title: GERMANY: Hamburg's swans are billeted in warmer quarters
- Date: 26th November 2007
- Summary: (L!1) HAMBURG, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 19, 2007) (REUTERS) SWAN SITTING ON LOG SEA GULLS ON POLES OLAF NIESS, HAMBURG SWAN CATCHER, DRIVING PAST IN BOAT GAME OF SWANS FLOATING ON THE WATER VARIOUS OF SWANS BEING GUIDED INTO WATERGATE SWANS IN WATERGATE (SOUNDBITE) (German) BYSTANDER ELFRIEDE SCHITZECK, SAYING "For ten years I have been coming here to watch this. I am just enjoying the sight, knowing that the animals are being helped and that they are going to be looked after during winter. I love it when they just sit in the boat and are being driven around." VARIOUS OF SWANS BEING HERDED TOGETHER AND PUT ON BOATS SWANS SITTING ON BOAT VARIOUS OF BOATS FULL OF SWANS BEING TOWED TO WINTER QUARTERS SWAN LOOKING AROUND (SOUNDBITE) (German) OLAF NIESS, HAMBURG SWAN CATCHER, SAYING "We caught the swans off Hamburg's river Alster today. For one thing, it is a century old tradition and it also is a protective measure in that we are simply using the bond between the animals to herd them as a group to their winter quarters, which is Hamburg's ice-free waters were they can rest and we can watch them well." SWANS IN BOATS (SOUNDBITE) (German) OLAF NIESS, HAMBURG SWAN CATCHER, SAYING "We do not have fewer animals this year, it is just a shift in the dynamics because some animals already are at the winter quarters- they came here voluntarily, that is why it looks like we brought fewer birds here." VARIOUS OF NIESS RELEASING SWANS INTO WATER
- Embargoed: 11th December 2007 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Nature / Environment,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA4XXMXNJL76T9BI0QCI68FTNO1
- Story Text: Hamburg's swans have been moved into their winter quarters on Monday (November 19) before the river Alster's water freezes and causes the city's mascots to starve.
The tradition of moving the swans away from the river is said to date back hundreds of years, in 1664 the city council placed them under protection.
Since 1818 a "Swan Father" has been charged with this task.
Every year the Hamburg swan catcher Olaf Niess looks after Hamburg's swan population in the frosty winter months, just as his father had before him. The semi-wild birds are moved from the Outer-Alster river where they stay during warmer months to a nearby lake where they survive the cold.
Olaf Niess gathered 50 or so protégés on barges, the way they have always been transported, but a feat easier said than done, not all the large birds like the idea of leaving their lake. The swan catching usually goes on for several days, until the more than 100 swans are safely in their new quarters.
"We do not have fewer animals this year, it is just a shift in the dynamics because some animals already are at the winter quarters- they came there voluntarily, that is why it looks like we brought fewer birds here", Niess said.
In order to escape injury from the birds' beaks or wings, the swan catchers tie their wings and feet together for the short boat journey to the Mill Damn in Eppendorf.
Here pumps ensure all winter long that the water won't freeze over.
To the pleasure of the city's bird fans, the pampered birds will be returned to the Outer-Alster river in the spring. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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