When the RSPCA was informed about a strange black swan swimming around a lake in Manchester, England, rescuers had no idea what to expect. They rushed over to investigate — only to learn that the unlucky swan wasn’t meant to be black in the first place.
The swan had become totally coated in heavy oil, which had turned his typically immaculate white feathers black. His rescuers were concerned that he had consumed some of the chemicals, so they hurried him to the RSPCA’s Stapeley Grange Wildlife Center to get him checked out and begin the process of cleaning him up.
In a news release, Lynsey Cale, a wildlife assistant at Stapeley Grange Wildlife Center, said, “It isn’t uncommon for us to accept birds and ducks whose feathers are covered with toxins like cooking oil, engine oil, or diesel, but this was the worst oiling of a bird I have seen.”
“At first, my colleague Rob and I joked that it was a black swan because of the pollutant covering.”
While the rescue center is used to clean up oil-covered animals, the swan’s coat was so thick that the oil would take many washes to even begin to come off.
They bathed the swan as quickly and frequently as they could, working hard to restore him to his usual state.
“Our first concern was to get the bird washed as quickly as possible, not only to make him more comfortable but to avoid him ingesting any of the toxic material from preening,” Cale said.
Finally, after a lot of baths, the swan was completely clean again.
… and back to his brilliant white color.
The swan was put back into the wild, and he swam away joyously, moving more easily and feeling much better now that he wasn’t an unintentional black swan.
0 Comments