Have seen your web site re swans fighting to the death.

Below is a photograph of a dead swan found yesterday.

He (Bruiser) arrived at our 3 acre lake in Wiltshire UK 5 years ago and mated with a 2 year old female (Clio) so he was now probably aged 8 or 9.

Their first signets were male (Eric) and female (Prudence) - they had 4 more years of breeding so we ended up with 2 females from the first of those, the crows got all the following 3 three years of signets.

I feed them every morning and noticed from time to time blood on Eric's head (the son), presumably from fighting although I never saw them at it.

About a month ago I noticed Bruiser was losing weight- he had always been quite thick set, and then the last few days he had difficulty getting out of the nearby brook and failed to use his wings to help himself, but he never lost his appetite.

Do you think he was killed by his son Eric as he weakened - no other part of his body had been damaged - so I assume it was not a fox or badger - or could it have been a mink?

I would be very interested to find out and wait to hear anyone's thoughts