According to the BBC, after the pair was separated for ‘squabbling’ in summer 2011, Royal Parks staff witnessed the lonely male swan went searching and calling for his mate.
The unusual bird was introduced to the UK from its native Australia to add variety to private ornamental wildfowl collections and now breeds in the wild.
In 2009 there were warnings that the more aggressive swan had escaped from private collections and was breeding all around the country. Black swans are also reported to be more aggressive towards humans than their UK relatives.
Dawn Balmer of the British Trust for Ornithology told the Daily Telegraph in 2009 “They are cropping up all over the place now. We have been surprised by the numbers we have found…Some people would be upset if you said black swans might be killed, but others see them as a serious threat to biodiversity. They compete with other species for food and habitat and are quite aggressive.”
Main image: Thinkstock
