Swan-Boat Romance Takes Wing (Again)

After her real-life avian lover flew the coop, a German black swan has returned to her ex—a swan-shaped paddleboat, the AP reports. Petra was joined at the wing with the craft in 2006—but that relationship seemed to have sung its swan song when both were taken to a zoo for the winter—where she dumped it for a real male.

Gander Paul left last weekend, a heartbreak that prompted zoo authorities to free her, alongside the paddleboat, in a nearby lake; it's too early to tell whether she’ll stand by her plastic friend this time, said the zoo’s director. Meanwhile, Petra has become a national celebrity, Der Spiegel reports.  “What the swan wants, she gets,” the boat’s owner once said. (More swan stories.)