In Germany, a procession dating back to the 18-hundreds has seen the swans of Hamburg arrive in their winter quarters.
The city's mascots were moved away from the Alster River, which freezes over in the winter months to a nearby lake.
The responsibility of this unusual tradition is left to swan catcher, Olaf Niess, dubbed the 'swan father'.
He looks after the protected swan population in the winter months, just as his father did before him.
'The water freezes from the outside towards the inside so the animals would be trapped in the middle of the ice and we would have to free them with ice breakers,' Niess said after he and his swans arrived on the small lake.
'We can avoid that here at the winter quarters because we have underwater pumps which keep the entire stretch of water free from ice.'
To the pleasure of the city's bird fans, the pampered birds will be returned to the Outer-Alster River in the spring.
