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The 2-year-old female swan was living at a pond in Morristown, when she lost her mate in an accident.
“Some animals especially swans, get depressed when they are alone — they won’t eat and they die,” Closter Nature Center Director Marc Gussen told Daily Voice.
As caretaker of the nature preserve, Gussen and his wife, Kimberly, live on the 136-acre property. With snapping turtles and wild coyotes, the pond is no place for swans.
“They are so much like humans — it’s scary,” he added. “They have complex relationships.”
The owners of the lonely swan reached out to Kimberly to tap into her network of aviary lovers to find suitable mate.
The match was made when Kimberly was assisting a family administer deworming medication to their potbelly pig. They knew of a male swan in Cornwall, N.Y. who had been alone for years.
When the pair were introduced at his pond on Oct. 13, it took about an hour for her to settle into her new terrain.
When she fluttered her feathers at him and started preening, Kimberly knew the bird was getting comfortable.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” she said. “When the two started swimming around together, I knew she felt safe.”
The Closter Nature Center focuses on educating the community and getting kids involved in experiencing nature. It is not licensed to provide animal rehabilitation and does not provide shelter for rescue animals.
CLICK HERE for more info about the center.
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