In any other situation, we would tell you to get another swan about the same age as your young swan. However, the problem is that we don't know what happened to your other swan. If it does not reappear, then you would have to assume something bad has happened. Swans this young usually do not walk off unless they walk off together or are chased. If there was a predator in the area that separated them and the other bird went on the bank to escape and could not get away, then the predator would have attacked and killed the young bird. This means that your other young swan is just as much in danger from a predator. The swan needs to be kept indoors at night in a secured shelter, garage, barn, shed with a straw covered or non-slip floor to prevent foot/leg injuries. Then, an hour after daybreak it can go back on the pond, but there are no guarantees that a predator still will not get to the young bird as they probably did not have street smarts to know about predators and how to escape. The bird should be brought back indoors an hour before sunset. You need to rotate the times you bring the young bird in and out so that a predator does not get smart on the times that the bird is on the pond.

Until you know what has happened to the other bird, you will only be setting up a new bird for something bad to happen to it. You will need to keep a new bird in a secured pen, half on water and half on land with a feeder inside so that the bird can acclimate itself to you, its food and you, the swan keeper. The pen must be completely secured top to bottom to keep any predators from digging under or crawling (over and into) the pen to access the new swan.

Please let us know if you find the other young bird. If there is a small stream or other watering hole in the nearby vicinity, the bird could have been chased to a neighboring pond or stream. If it was chased to other homes or a woods area, then the outcome does not look good unless a neighbor found him. The Regal Swan