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Swan predation ??


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Right I know there are a few countrymen still left on here and I know a few of you follow the cat stuff I do and a few think it’s a load of old shite, but if we could just put all that to one side for a moment and attempt to just answer the question it would be much appreciated, over recent weeks I have found 4 swans that have been dragged from the water and either partially or completely consumed, by a mystery predator, I,ve spent a lot of time googling and the only swan predation I could find was when they were stuck in or on a frozen surface and fox,s have taken them, other than that hitting overhead power lines seems the main cause of death and very little to nothing attacks kills and consumes swans, so my question is has anybody ever had experience of swans being taken from the waters edge and eaten by anything other than Eastern European migrants ??

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Mink? 

Sorry, not a swan.., or an otter.., or a mink. My favourite UK mammal though. I never get tired of watching stoats. Found this on the tube and thought I’d share it.  

One of my lurchers has a thing for swans and would take one given half the chance, shes pulled a few up from the edge, ive her broke to them now but i can still see it in her that she still wants them

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2 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Right I know there are a few countrymen still left on here and I know a few of you follow the cat stuff I do and a few think it’s a load of old shite, but if we could just put all that to one side for a moment and attempt to just answer the question it would be much appreciated, over recent weeks I have found 4 swans that have been dragged from the water and either partially or completely consumed, by a mystery predator, I,ve spent a lot of time googling and the only swan predation I could find was when they were stuck in or on a frozen surface and fox,s have taken them, other than that hitting overhead power lines seems the main cause of death and very little to nothing attacks kills and consumes swans, so my question is has anybody ever had experience of swans being taken from the waters edge and eaten by anything other than Eastern European migrants ??

One of my lurchers has a thing for swans and would take one given half the chance, shes pulled a few up from the edge, ive her broke to them now but i can still see it in her that she still wants them, and yet she'll walk past any other birds

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Yeah Ive found quite a few dead swans but I'd always put them down to some accident or trauma (like you say powerlines) and foxes and predators eating and spreading them about. I've never considered any other predator actually doing the killing. I'm sure I've seen video of big cats on their native environment hunting aquatic prey though? 

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Many, many years ago, I used to excersise and train a whippet for a bloke who owned a pub next to Killingworth lake.

This lake did and still has, a huge  poulation of swans and geese.

The whippet was crazy for them. If he let it out, it would make straight for the lake , launching itself into the water after them. It killed quite a few, until he got rid of it.

Years later my old Beddy cross did the same thing, but fortunately didn't connect ! 

I give the place a wide berth now !

Cheers.

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I wonder if swans have some special attraction to predators then . Quite often I've found them smashed to pieces over a wide area when dead pheasants or other dead birds lie around longer before being consumed. Maybe it's just because they are so big and have so many feathers it just stands out more but they do certainly seem to be a favourite 

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6 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

Many, many years ago, I used to excersise and train a whippet for a bloke who owned a pub next to Killingworth lake.

This lake did and still has, a huge  poulation of swans and geese.

The whippet was crazy for them. If he let it out, it would make straight for the lake , launching itself into the water after them. It killed quite a few, until he got rid of it.

Years later my old Beddy cross did the same thing, but fortunately didn't connect ! 

I give the place a wide berth now !

Cheers.

That must be a whippet thing as I had a little whippet cross many years ago that was exactly the same, would launch itself from anywhere if it saw a swan , whatever is doing this though is pulling them from the waters edge into the open and consuming them, it also appears to be moving as the kills are all a few miles further along the river than the last one , the latest one was pulled from an estate lake and eaten on the lawn, ??

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3 minutes ago, Greyman said:

That must be a whippet thing as I had a little whippet cross many years ago that was exactly the same, would launch itself from anywhere if it saw a swan , whatever is doing this though is pulling them from the waters edge into the open and consuming them, it also appears to be moving as the kills are all a few miles further along the river than the last one , the latest one was pulled from an estate lake and eaten on the lawn, ??

I'm on the cynical side of "big cat " theory, but I'm open minded enough to think it could be possible, so it could be the answer  to the swan predation.

I'd have to rule out other things first. Feral dogs ?  Humans killing them and leaving them for other predators ?

Shame, though, as they are such majestic birds.

Cheers.

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Prior plausibility is usually the best consideration, find some dead swans consider likely causes. Current bird flu outbreak 

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

A swan rescue centre shuts after two swans it treated passed the virus on to others.

 

Dead swans scavenged. 

So Bird flu is the most likely. 

Other causes 

People killing swans, quite possibly. 

Fox or Otter taken a liking to swans roosting, possibly but less likely. 

Etc, etc.... 

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I reckon there’s some nut case round my bit last year Someone killed and had all the heads off the swans on the local lake wiped em out perfectly intact just head gone  and I always wondered how the f**k they got hold of em a few weeks back now old bill was called out over back of the farm down hill from me as could hear pigs going mental in middle of night police turned up someone had stuck a pig and killed it and stuck another and injured it but had to be pts il try find link 

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5 minutes ago, sandymere said:

Prior plausibility is usually the best consideration, find some dead swans consider likely causes. Current bird flu outbreak 

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

A swan rescue centre shuts after two swans it treated passed the virus on to others.

 

Dead swans scavenged. 

Most likely. 

People killing swans, quite possibly. 

Fox or Otter taken a liking to swans roosting, possibly but less likely. 

Etc, etc.... 

Occams Razor........"If you hear hoofbeats, assume horses, not zebras " ?

Cheers.

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This is number 4 head took clean

7 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

I'm on the cynical side of "big cat " theory, but I'm open minded enough to think it could be possible, so it could be the answer  to the swan predation.

I'd have to rule out other things first. Feral dogs ?  Humans killing them and leaving them for other predators ?

Shame, though, as they are such majestic birds.

Cheers.

I need cynical people mate, just divs I could live without, we all need a bit of cynicism to keep us grounded in anything we do, I have close friends that think it’s all folly and I need that input as well, ?

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