A family of whooper swans have become local celebrities in the town of Jokela, about 50 kilometres north of Helsinki, after a local photographer captured their apparent respect for traffic rules.
Jukka Pihlainen told Yle he has been photographing swans in the region for years, and has noted the behaviour of one family in particular this year as they roam freely around the town centre.
There are four ponds in Jokela, Pihlainen said, and the family tends to move between them.
"I have noticed that they change ponds every 2-3 days," Pihlainen said.
Due to this penchant for moving around, they can often be observed strolling across roads in the town. Sometimes they even do so at pedestrian crossings, Pihlainen said, although on other occasions the rules of the road are not so impeccably observed.
The family had six cygnets, or chicks, at the start of the summer, but Pihlainen said that one was eaten by a predator while another was taken to a veterinary clinic due to poor health.
The people of the town have embraced the local celebrities, with a Facebook page called Jokelan laulujoutsenet - Tuusula Finland garnering over 5,000 followers.
The sight of swans roaming around the centre of Jokela has been a regular occurrence in the town for over a decade, and Pihlainen said it is very likely that at least one of the two adults in the video has been observed crossing roads in previous years too.
The first part of the video at the top of the article was filmed on 7 July and the last part on 3 August, with six cygnets evident in the earlier clip but only four remaining in the later part.
