Nesting Mute Swan Kills Caretaker

[Blue Moon]

Anthony “Tony” Hensley, 37, of Villa Park, Illinois, drowned after a nesting Mute Swan he had cared for and fed for the past several years attacked him while he was kayaking and continued to attack him after it knocked him out of the kayak as he attempted to swim to safety. Hensley loved the outdoors and had worked the past ten years for Knox Swan and Dog, a company that specializes in non-lethal Canada Geese nuisance control featuring programs for property owners using primarily Mute Swans and Border Collies to discourage Canada Geese from nesting on private property when nesting or roosting would be considered a nuisance by interfering with intended property use.

According to their website, Knox Swan and Dog has over 300 properties in their swan program where they establish a desirable swan habitat that includes shelter, nesting boxes, and daily food. Mute Swans are very territorial and naturally limit the number of Canada Geese that roost or nest at the same habitat.

At the time of the tragic event, Saturday 14 April at approximately 7 a.m., Hensley was paddling out as he had done hundreds of times before in a kayak to check on the swans as part of the ongoing swan food, shelter, and nesting maintenance program. The swans were nesting when the male swan reportedly attacked Hensley, knocking him out of the kayak. His family stated that Hensley was in excellent physical condition and considered an excellent swimmer however each time he surfaced for air; the swan attacked and repeatedly pushed him under water until he drowned.

A witness living in a condo on the property where the private lake is located called 911 after she saw Hensley go under. Residents said that the lake area was nearly unusable due to goose droppings until Hensley relocated the two Mute Swans to the lake a few years ago. Since then he has been a fixture at the lake often bringing his kayak and dog with him when he came to care for the swans and the lake is once again enjoyed by residents and beautiful. Besides providing daily feed, he also built and maintained shelter and the nesting platform the swans were using at the time of the incident.

Tony Hensley, 37, holds his daughters (Family photo)

Tony & his wife. (Family photo)

Prayers to Tony’s family and friends. Here is one of many news stories of the accident that includes video of the nesting swans.

[jpeter]

Well, that's the craziest thing I've read in awhile.

[Blue Moon]

Regarding the above accident, the authorities found a PFD (life jacket) still in the kayak and I suspect this is the key to the tragic outcome of the incident. While a PFD was found in the kayak it was not noted if it was an extra one or not, and I could not find a news story that confirmed if he was wearing a PFD at the time of the incident. Like many that paddle, he likely assumed he could access the PDF in the kayak if necessary since the small private lake he was on is considered clam, flat water. Most people feel that if they fall out in calm, flat water they’ll still be able to access it should the need arise. While I can only speculate, I highly suspect that he must not have been wearing one and had false security that the one in the kayak was within reach.

Some other factors to consider, the water temp at the time was approximately 50 degrees which is take your breath away cold, plus the air temp was only between 55 to 60 degrees, and the sky cloudy just after sunrise that morning when the incident occurred. If the initial swan attack that caused him to fall out of the kayak also caused him to perhaps involuntary swallow water, since it was reported that he had boots on, and the small lake is deep, struggling to catch a breath in the cold water could have made a simple capsize event turn into a very serious situation, especially without his PFD on.

Even with a territorial, nesting, and aggressive swan to contend with, I can’t image that he wouldn’t have survived if he was wearing a PFD. Tragic anyway you look at it.

[jpeter]

Originally Posted by Blue Moon

Even with a territorial, nesting, and aggressive swan to contend with, I can’t image that he wouldn’t have survived if he was wearing a PFD.

I agree... plus I can't quite figure out why he wouldn't take a deep breath and swim underwater for a minute or so out of harms way.

But you're right. Tragic and surreal.

[betsy]

Something bothers me about this incident. According to this website by Mallard Lane Farms, an outfit that breeds and sells these swans, it's typical for them to attack their anything they view as a danger, including their caretakers. when they're nesting.
http://www.mallardlanefarms.com/swans.htm

Pairs of Mute Swans can be quite aggressive during breeding season which starts in late Feburaury. During this time they will act aggressively toward anything that they perceive as a threat, they may attemp to bite and or use their wings to remove everyone and everything from their area including their caretakers. The Mute Swan's threat display consist of raising the secondary feathers of the wing, presumably in order to make the bird look as large and menacing as possible.

If this is typical behavior and if it's preceeded by a known threat display (I don't know if the cob waited to make a threat before attacking in this case) and Hensley worked for a company that's in the business of placing and monitoring these swans, why didn't he know enough about them to anticipate an attack and stay away while they were nesting? Or at least recognize an imminent attack from the threat display?

Did the business plan call for taking food out to the nesting platform, and if so, why does it call for such an obviously risky activity? Does this company not teach their employees about this danger?

And why are mated pairs used when a pair of same sex swans wouldn't result in this sort of aggressive behavior? (The Mallard Farms website says that same sex pairs are often purchased by people that just want ornamental swans for that very reason.) Oh -- but maybe it takes a mated pair nesting to be aggressive enough to chase the geese away. OK, that makes sense.

Newspaper reports include a speculation by his father-in-law that perhaps he didn't succeed at fighting off the swan because he didn't want to injure it. (an example linked below) In light of that, I have a hard time believing the Fox "news" story claim that the family wants the swan to be put down.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,1669472.story

One thing that isn't clear enough is the type of boat being used. For inland waters the term kayak is used rather loosely to include whitewater kayaks (such as fiberglass covered boats with spray skirts that keep water out if the boat capsizes, so the paddler can right it by adroit maneuvers with the paddle) through Folbot folding boats with various degrees of cockpit openness to plastic boats and inflatable "rubber ducky" boats that are totally open. It strikes me that taking one's dog along implies the use of an open boat. "Rolled off his kayak" definitely suggests an open boat. It makes some sense to have a pfd loose in an open boat where it would float if the boat was overturned and could presumably be grabbed, but none to have one in a covered kayak. But if it was found "in" the boat, as you report, Geryl, then it must have been clipped to it with a carabiner or something. Less helpful in an emergency. But then, Hensley apparently didn't anticipate an emergency in the calm, flat water of a pond. And now we're back to why didn't he? Couldn't he tell that the swans were nesting? The photo of the female incubating eggs or nestlings on the nesting platform suggests that he ought to have been able to. Maybe he was just curious about the progress of the nesting.

I suspect that hypothermia played a big part in this needless death, too. Cold water not only takes one's breath away, it leaches heat from the body far faster than air of a similar temperature does since water's thermal conductivity is about 30 times that of air. Hypothermia makes both the body and the mind sluggish. Add possibly heavy boots and layers of warm clothing and Hensley was too encumbered for efficient swimming. If the boots were open at the top they'd have been even worse -- a drag on him when filled with water. I think I can understand why he couldn't evade the attacking swan.

Still, Jim sums it up well -- tragic and surreal.

Closer to home.....

What about this one -- a man swimming in and then dying after being pulled from White Rock Lake over near the Bathhouse yesterday? There are Wednesday evening races on the lake but it's not known whether the man was in a boat beforehand. What was he doing in the water?

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/a...ming-in-w.html