Front page news of the Province today is super interesting article about the mute swans of Stanley Park. You might be surprised to learn that they're actually an invasive species that the park board has been attempting to get rid of for some years now (let's hope they take as long to "" the Mount Pleasant skatepark like they're currently proposing to do).
When mute swans attack people it's generally not that much of a scene. Like this guy I captured below in Steveston a couple weeks back they'll circle for a bit, eye you up, and if you don't move on they might come and take a peck at you. Yell at them (like I did) and they'll leave you alone. Unfortunately for trumpeter swans and snow geese, non-invasive species, this bullying by them actually prevents them from taking their place in the environment. Hence the move to get rid of them, which is a strange (yet somehow understandable) sort of biological xenophobia.
piece from the Richmond News tells the story of last year's additions to their mute swan population, which they seem to embrace out there. Perhaps it's the folklore of how they got there; that the original pair came from a local golf course and made their home in the Fraser River and have been there ever since. Maybe it's that there's room for all the birds out there. Whatever the answer, if you want to be chomped at by a swan, head to Richmond! ;)
