Crinkly the unusual and much loved Bewick's Swan has returned to WWT Slimbridge and this year he has company, could this be Crinkly's first mate?

Against all odds, the Bewick's Swan with the crinkly neck Crinkly', has returned this morning. Crinkly was spotted on the Slimbridge Rushy and has been proudly feeding in front of the main Peng Observatory.

Experts at Slimbridge were amazed to see Crinkly arrive in 2004 as a cygnet with parents Lucius and Coletta, with a strangely deformed neck. Despite this disability, Crinkly has managed to survive seven migrations from breeding grounds on the Russian arctic tundra which means that it has flown over 21,000 km. A birth defect appears to be the likely cause of this unusual deformity.

Crinkly appears to be loosely associating with another Slimbridge Bewick's Swan called Taciturn.

It is too early to say whether Crinkly and Taciturn are mates but we'll be monitoring them over the next few days to see. At the moment they are associating on Swan Lake.