One of the few silver swans in the world had a close call when an old fishhook snagged its neck while the rare bird was feeding in Lakeland's Lake Morton.
The swan likely encountered the hook a few days before someone noticed the rusty barb in the bird's neck Tuesday night. Workers with the city's recreation department managed to catch it Wednesday morning, said Geoffrey Gardner, the veterinarian who removed the hook in a brief operation later that day.
"It turned out better than it might have. We'd hate to lose a quarter of our silver swans," Gardner said.
The swan is one of four mutations of the more common Australian black swans that inhabit the 80-acre lake.
Originally, officials feared the hook was in the swan's mouth, he said. It turned out to be deeply embedded in the muscle about halfway between the beak and body.
"We had to clean the area, then advance the hook far enough to get the barb out," Gardner said.
The swan probably snagged itself on the hook while feeding, Gardner said. The birds feed on the bottom.
The city banned fishing in the lake in the early 1980s. The hook wasn't new, but it also was not that old, meaning someone threw a line into the lake since the fishing ban, Gardner said.
The injured swan was given antibiotics and the wound bandaged. It will be kept at Gardner's Lakeland Veterinary Hospital a couple of days before being released back to the lake.
The silver swans first showed up as a spontaneous mutation in the late 1990s or early 2000. The hooked swan was born in 2008 and hasn't reached breeding age, Gardner said.
The mutation still appears if a silver swan mates with a black swan. One of four eggs in the clutch will produce a silver swan, Gardner said.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement