Gay goose

The Simpsons premiered on Fox. And Thomas met the love of his life: Henrietta, who was a black swan. Many fond memories feeding him his sweet corn every evening," said one user on Facebook.

"Thomas, I remember meeting you and how amazing you were. Even without being able to see and his health deteriorating from old age, his spirit was as strong as ever.

When Henry fell in love with another swan, Henrietta, Thomas stayed with the pair and helped raise their cygnets up until Henry died in 2009.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Thomas finally retired to the Wellington Bird Rehabilitation Trust (WRBT) sanctuary in 2013 and he eventually went blind.

The WRBT confirmed with indy100 in 2018 that Thomas passed away on Saturday 3 February.

In an overpopulated world, it would be a good thing if there were more homo-sexuality."

--Goose behavior expert Conrad Loren, November 1974.

[Another mark of the early days: lengthy articles describing studies of animal behavior. They always forget that the other refuses to be mounted and they try again every spring.

It turned out that Henrietta was in fact a male swan who had mated with the new female swan. In human years he would be around 80 years old," said Mr Peryer.

According to Mr Peryer, it is not uncommon for geese to be bisexual, though he adds that the duo were the only pair in the Waikanae Estuary to mate with the same sex. A young black female swan arrived at Waimanu Lagoon where the happy couple lived.

"He got really aggressive and started beating the swans up. Their mixed-breed children are called a “swoose“.

Thomas meets the love of his life

First off, it’s great to see that the colors of one’s feathers didn’t matter when it came to love. But also that being different avian ethnicities didn’t matter either.

Thomas was already a celebrity in New Zealand and known around the world. Big hugs," another commented.

Thomas' memorial on Saturday will see him buried next to Henry the swan. He added:

Prior to Henrietta turning up they had about 18 happy gay years together.

It is understood there is now talk of plans to bury his body next to his soulmate Henry in the park where they lived for all those years.

Thomas' eyesight soon began to fail him, becoming blind first in one eye and eventually both. While no longer with us, his inspirational story of romance, loss, and empathy continues to resonate. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.