Photos of the injured swan before and during examination, courtesy of Anne-Katrin Titze
After a message was posted on Brooklynian regarding a "distressed swan" at Prospect Park Lake, wildlife rehabilitator Anne-Katrin Titze headed over to check out the situation, and just sent us these photos and a status update.
The original message posted said: "The swan has gotten a piece of white garbage in a ring stuck around its lower beak. It can't get it off. It doesn't seem like paper, cause we watched it thrashing in the water for 20 minutes, and it remained in place. We left messages on the Park Admin phone lines and called 311 to file this with the City."
Titze tells us that they tracked down the injured cygnet, which had a barbed fish hook in its beak that had already been removed by the natural resources crew. She says the beak was cracked, but there appeared to be no fishing line or damage to the interior of the mouth. It's currently swimming in the lake with friends!
Prospect Park has been criticized in the past for not fining fishermen who don't follow park rules, and this isn't the first time that a swan has fallen victim to fishing debris.
