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Park Slope Swans Become Territorial
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 30, 2009
Modified Sep 30, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 30, 2009
Modified Sep 30, 2009
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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.”
Tagged
brooklyn
fight
lake
park slope
prospect park
swans
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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