Photo: Courtesy of New England Wildlife Center
WEYMOUTH, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — An abandoned swan is making a return to the wild thanks to the help of the New England Wildlife Center.
This comes after a family of swans in Boston recently crossed the Jamaicaway parkway to settle Jamica Pond located across the street.
The entire family made it to the pond except for one young member named Sola.
The Boston Parks and Recreation Department noticed the abandoned swan and kept close watch on it hoping that the parents would return for their child.
However, the parents did not return, and this is when the New England Wildlife Center stepped in to help the stranded youngster.
“The smallest cygnet got left behind,” said New England Wildlife Center’s CEO Zak Mertz.
New England Wildlife Center then tried to gently relocate the swan back to its family but were met with some mixed results.
“[It was] a big happy reunion, they accepted the cygnet back and for two days they went about their business, and we thought all was well until unfortunately some folks noticed that one of the siblings was sort of picking on the young swan, pecking at it,” said Mertz.
Shortly after this the parents began to cast Sola away from the rest of the family and only focused on the stronger sibling cygnets.
Solo once more, Sola’s health appeared to decline as he stopped eating.
After this, Sola was taken to the New England Wildlife Center’s hospital in Weymouth where its team ran diagnostics on the swan and rehabilitated him.
The Wildlife Center plans to return the swan to the wild eventually as it is common for young swans to leave their parents and go off on their own during the fall season.
“Our goal here was not to subvert nature, but to try to understand what is going on, see if there was a remedy for it and just give this swan the best fighting chance we can to return to the wild,” said Mertz.
For more updates on Sola the swan click here.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jared Brosnan (@JaredBrosnanWBZ) reports.