Ask the Swan Specialist

Re: Why the injured cygnet was accepted by the parents after an absence of 6 days
By:The Regal Swan
Date: 16 June 2009

Hi Jeanne:

Good news. The poop theory was a good thought, but it is a wive's tale (actually mother's who don't want their kids to pick up birds) about birds smelling human scents. Birds don't have that much of an olfactory sense but obviously, have other ways of telling which cygnets are theirs and if something is wrong. In any case, by introducing them to the other 3, he/she was accepted and that is great. The Regal Swan