Swans that disappeared at Lake Eola were taken by raccoons
By Michelle Meredith
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ORLANDO (WESH) — Downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Park is famous for its families of swans.
There was concern and outrage from the community over the weekend after rare baby swans disappeared.
It was an unsolved mystery at Lake Eola, but in the end, there would be no happy ending.
Two Lake Eola swans, Tango and Queenie are resting.
Tucked deep in Queenie’s feathers is her one surviving baby.
The pair had five, but over the weekend, four disappeared.
“I was able to save one. Curt helped me get it out of the water on Sunday,” City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said.
It all started when Sheehan started getting messages on social media that four of the pair’s babies were nowhere to be found.
Sheehan went to Orlando’s iconic lake and rescued one baby swan left.
What happened to the other four? Did a predator get them? There are plenty in Lake Eola, including turtles and herons.
The answer was locked away in a surveillance camera.
Sadly, what the camera shows is that raccoons got the baby swans.
Several raccoons went into the nest.
There was a scuffle and the four baby swans disappeared.
“It’s awful. That’s what happened. Unfortunately, it is nature,” Sheehan said.
“There is some kind of relief that it was a four-legged predator and not a two-legged predictor. Why is that, when we think of someone possibly stealing them?” WESH 2’s Michelle Meredith asked.
“I think it’s just us losing faith in humanity. I’m glad someone didn’t try to steal them. I think they are well-respected here,” Jonathan Baucon, a resident, said.
You don’t think of Lake Eola as a little wild kingdom.
Geese walk in Tantum with people on the sidewalk. Swans nest wherever they want.
It’s a reminder they are not just for show.
Lake Eola is their home, where they live, but this is also a reminder of how fragile their lives can be. Tango and Queenie are resting.
They have been taken out of the lake for now and will be introduced back into Lake Eola when their baby is a little older and bigger.
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