Swans can be cruel

Subject: Swans can be cruel Sun Feb 27, 2011 5:24 pm

On Friday at lunch time I went for a walk alongside the water of Leith. I noticed that there were two adult swans and a cygnet on the other side of the water. The cygnet wasn't that young as it was quite big and some of it's feathers had not yet turned white. However, it appeared that the two adult swans were attacking the youngster and at one point one of the swans was walking over it. I carried on walking for a while and when I came back they were still at it. A guy on the other side of the water who was walking his dog threw something at the swans to scare them off and I heard him say to someone that the cygnet was in a bad way Sad

Does anyone know why they would do this?

Number of posts : 48 Registration date : 2009-04-08

Swans are very territorial, driving off their young when they are almost fully grown is normal behaviour for mute swans. http://tinyurl.com/swanstuff

Subject: Re: Swans can be cruel Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:42 am

Thanks, it may be 'normal behaviour' but it's a very hard lesson for the poor cygnet Rolling Eyes