Park Slope Swans Become Territorial

Photo via JGNY's flickr

Fighting families, aggressive, territorial behavior... yep, sounds like Park Slope! CityRoom reports that a pair of swans living in Prospect Park Lake have recently waged war on each other after they both started families.

While the lake is a whopping 60 acres, the NIMBY swans are not cool with sharing the space. "The couple in the southern end of the lake, raising four brown cygnets, are trying to drive out the other family, which has one cygnet. The southern father — wings beating, back hunched and neck extended — streaks across the lake with a wake behind him and repeatedly jumps on members of the other family. It looks as if he’s trying to drown them. Sometimes he has the help of the mother and their offspring."

It's like Amy Sohn wrote a nature book! Some human locals have tried to step in and get the two families separated, but the swans they have managed to take to a second body of water returned to their original lake immediately. Experts say the problems stem from the animals being highly territorial, and have refused to step in to end the battle. One declared: “One animal is going to win, and one animal is going to lose.”

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By Jen Carlson in News on September 30, 2009 12:52 PM

Comments [rss]

Leon Freilich

TEA LOUNGE LESSON

Swan Lake it's not--not when there's a brood

To worry and brood about--

The cygnets' space must be protected

And other groups kept out!

The daddy swans were different

Before they took to bombs,

No doubt provoked by mates who've learned

From Park Slope stroller moms.

asakasan

Why is this newsworthy? Because it's in Park Slope? Let's fawn over the chic Slope swans! Oh, how hip they are! File under "not news".

NannyState

I normally don't feed the swans but if enough empty strollers bob up on the pond, I'm hauling grain.

just saying

Swans are not to be messed with.

They are one of the few birds that will actually fight to the death. A number of years ago, a swan in Central Park actually killed a small dog who jumped into a lake. Also, A swan swimming with its wings lifted out is the warning sign of an angry swan.

nicemarmot

Sigh. Some people really need to go back to "Dealing with Wild Animals 101" and reread the chapter called DON'T FUCK WITH WILD ANIMALS YOU GODDAMNED IDIOT. THEY CAN TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES!