Yes, the swan is in the March mating season and is exhibiting pre-nesting behavior. The reason that he is chasing the one person toward the pond is that he has imprinted on her and now would like to have her as her mate. This may seem funny, but swans do imprint and unfortunately, this is the behavior that they will exhibit to humans that they trust, especially if they do not have a mate. Swans will vocalize, display, pull at weeds to imitate nest building, etc., around people. He is chasing the golf carts, and other people because he is the most territorial at this time of the year. Once the testosterone dissipates, he will be the same sweet swan of old. However, you will need to keep children and everyone else from getting too close during this time. Signage may be a good idea to warn people that mating season is occurring and they need to give the swan his space.

Now, there are several issues to address about whether to get him a mate. First, whether he will accept a female is a major issue. And, yes we said female as he will fight, injure, possibly be injured, kill or be killed by the introduction of another male.

If you choose to get a female swan, you will have to build a pen (protected top and bottom from predators) half in the pond and half on land with a feeder inside. This will allow the new swan and the male to get to know each other as well as allow her to acclimate to her new surroundings. If there is any sign of aggression towards her, then you need to remove her from the pond and let him just live alone.

Also, you must see if your state allows you to have swans as many states now view mute swans as feral and would just as soon see them dead as introduced to their ponds or lakes. If you decide to get a mate for the male, you will also need to determine if the state allows you to have cygnets and what plan you will develop to keep or give away the cygnets once they are old enough to live on their own. Just remember that if you have cygnets, you will need to pinion them at 1-3 weeks of age (required by state law to keep them from flying and starting a feral population) which means you have to capture the cygnets and get them to a knowledgeable avian veterinarian. Once mating season begins, the male will chase them from the pond and then what you will do with the cygnets after this will become a major concern.

So, if you can keep people from interacting with him, our suggestion would be to allow him to live on his own unless you want to incur additional veterinary medical care, time constraints for caring for new swans, etc. The Regal Swan