Do swans have teeth?

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There is often great disagreement over the question of whether swans have teeth. It looks like swans have teeth, but these are lamellae. In the case of a bite, however, this makes no difference because the pain is just as great.

Swans are very loyal animals.
Swans are very loyal animals.

Plumage, teeth and food of the swans

  • Swans are the largest water birds. They belong to the geese family and are divided into eight species. Depending on the species, they have completely white, black and white or completely black plumage. The mourning swans that live in Australia are completely black. In Europe the white mute swan, which you can recognize by its hump on its nose, lives mainly. Apart from the color of the plumage, all swan species look very similar.
  • Adult males weigh around 10 to 12 kilograms, making them one of the largest birds that can fly. However, females stay a bit smaller and rarely weigh more than ten kilos.
  • In the wild, swans only live in shallow water, where they can reach the bottom with their beak, as this is how they ingest their food. In doing so, they can simply be tilted forward, but the back of the body remains above water and then searches the ground for something to eat. This is called rooting.
  • Swans have a vegetarian diet, they tear green plants from the bottom of the water with their beak and eat grass and plants that grow on the bank. If you take a close look at a swan's beak, it looks a bit like it has teeth. From a biological point of view, however, these are not teeth, but lamellae. Through these lamellas, the water can flow back when eating, while the plants remain in their beak. The lamellas also make it easier for the swans to pull the plants out of the ground.

These birds have a sense of family

  • Swans are very loyal. A pair of swans almost always stays together for their entire life and raises the young together. However, swans do not usually live in larger groups.
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    They are the largest waterfowl in Europe and with their white plumage they are widely ...

  • The breeding season begins in March or April. Then the female lays five to eight eggs, from which the young hatch after five to six weeks. Mostly the female breeds, but every now and then the male also takes over from them.
  • However, the male is more responsible for protecting the clutch during the breeding season and can become very aggressive and hiss loudly if he sees the clutch threatened. For this reason, it is better not to go anywhere near a swan's nest.
  • The hatched young initially have gray plumage, which only becomes white in the course of their first year of life. They can fly after about four to five months, but usually stay with their parents until the beginning of next spring.

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