Changes Afoot for Gender-Switched Swan

Keepers at the Münster City Zoo made the discovery while examining an injury to the swan's foot. "Black Peter" -- or "Petra" as some have suggested renaming the bird -- shot to notoriety this spring after visitors to Münster's Aasee lake noticed that the creature had become strangely infatuated with a swan-shaped fiberglass boat. Earlier this month, both the swan and its unlikely objet d'amour were taken to the zoo for the winter via the city's canal system.

Zoo employees had hoped they could cure their new arrival of the strange obsession by interesting it in one of the zoo's presumably female swans. It now appears that in Peter/Petra's case their efforts were probably misdirected.

Peter/Petra had cozied up with the boat before falling asleep each night, said the keepers. The swan is scheduled to be taken to the zoo's Pelican House on Tuesday so that the wound on its foot can be kept dry. Zoo employees are building a new window there so that the boat can accompany its admirer.

A local bank has sponsored the renovations, and a charity has been set up in Peter/Petra's name, with donations going toward raising public consciousness of swans' disappearing natural habitats.

The only question is whether the proximity to pelicans will give rise to a new fetish or whether the swan's passion for plastic will prevail.