All swans have individual personalities. Unfortunately, when swans act aggressively, they add to the myth that they are an overly aggressive bird. There are several possibilities that may have occurred which is provoking this type of behavior:

1. The swan is extremely territorial and does not like anything or anyone in his realm.

2. Some idiot(s) did something to antagonize the swan and now it is not trusting of any humans.

3. We are just now coming out of the mating season and his/her mating hormones may not have leveled. Once these hormones decrease, the incident of aggressiveness seen during the mating/nesting season diminishes.

There are two suggestions that we would offer:

1. Remove this swan and place him in a safe, secure environment with limited public contact. A one person/family would be an ideal situation for him.

2. If this is not possible, be very wary of being in his territory especially with children. Children should always be supervised around ponds and lakes, but if this swan is overly aggressive, he could severely hurt a child or himself trying to remove the perceived threat.

If the swan does come at you, DO NOT RUN! Back away slowly while raising your hands (a white towel works better) and shouting NO!. The white towel raised in your arms and waving at the swan gives him the appearance that you are a bigger more dominant swan and he should leave. Just make sure that you have enough room to retreat should he decide to engage you further. The reason that we state not to back down is that once he knows that he can chase people from the area, he wins and will continue the chase. If he knows that he can't get by with this behavior, it usually diminishes if not completely stops the behavior. Just be safe and do not get hurt while trying to be the bigger swan! The Regal Swan
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