East Sussex WRAS received several calls from members of the public at Hampden Park's Decoy Pond, after the parent swans started attacking their remaining cygnet from last year.

This is a natural phenomena for them to attack and chase of their previous young and can take place any when from October through to February. In the wild they would naturally fly off and find a non-territorial flock or their own piece of water to set up residence. Unfortunately in some park ponds the young are reluctant to fly off due to the feeding and abundance of food. This can lead to the cygnets getting seriously beaten up, injured and put into life threatening situations like being chased across roads.

As it is illegal to remove a wild animal or bird from the wild unnecessarily or without a licence, WRAS rescuers are not legally allowed to step in unless the situation escalates to a fairly serious level where the cygnets life is in danger.

That happened to day at Decoy Pond Hampden Park, and rescuer Tony & Claire Neads and Brian Dowling attending on site to assist the cygnet being attacked and drowned by dad.

The cygnet was delivered to WRAS's Casualty Care Centre where he has been checked over and settled down for the night. Once fit and well again, he will be relocated to a non-territorial flock of swan in Eastbourne.

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