Swan Lake in Masterton has evicted one of its native-born sons.
The white or mute swan population at Henley Lake increased last year with the hatching of four cygnets, three of which still dwell there.
The fourth, however, was found weak and sickly a week ago and taken to the SPCA, after
apparently being kicked out of the pool by its parents.
Masterton man Ross Cottle, national president of Ducks Unlimited, said in the wild, "apparently if a cygnet is sick, the mother will drive it away."
Cut off from the people who like to feed the birds at the lake, the young swan weakened and lost weight.
Mr Cottle's wife Sharon noted that, "what happens in real life is that if there is not enough food around, she (the mother) will push the weakest one off".
"Or it could just have got on to dry land and somebody's dog has chased it."
Mr Cottle and Sharon took the bird, after it had been checked out by veterinarian John McLaren, and have rehomed it with a friend.
"It was all right, just very light, so they're feeding it up," Mr Cottle said.
The Henley Lake swans are part of a Ducks Unlimited breeding programme, to establish a managed population of the swans around New Zealand.
Mr Cottle noted the swans are "not like canada geese which hatch seven or eight and raise seven or eight chicks every year; they're very slow breeders".
"In the wild they breed and the male will drive them away (to a new pond); but here because they are pinioned, they can't fly away."
For some reason most of the swans bred in captivity are male, and Mr Cottle first brought two males to the lake four years ago.
Three years ago another two birds, this time including a female, were added, and now the first generation of cygnets has hatched at the lake.
The swans come from a place called Peacock Springs in Christchurch. "We pair them off and sell them or send them off to whoever wants them."
The Henley Lake white swan population, besides four imports and now three hatchlings, has another, free-flying pair that divide their time between the Masterton lake and other waterbodies nearby.
