Prickles was just a small town swan living near a lonely pond in Addison Township before being rescued and sent to the Howell Nature Center for rehabilitation late last year. She recently made her way south, toward Detroit, taking a midnight crate to her new home at the Detroit Zoo.
Prickles is a trumpeter swan that was born with a condition known as Angel Wing Syndrome which affects the carpal joints on the wings of waterfowl. Humans feeding waterfowl crackers, bread and other foods of the like is one of the “probable causes” to the condition, as per the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. Because of this condition, Prickles can’t fly, which made her an easy target for prey before being rescued back in November.
The young swan spent a few months at the Howell Nature Center, Michigan’s largest wildlife rehabilitation clinic, before being transported to the Detroit Zoo where she will replace the zoo’s female swan that passed away.
“Thanks to our partners at the Detroit Zoological Society, (Prickles) was transferred to pair with a male, in hopes of future offspring which may be reintroduced into the wild, to aid in the conservation of the species,” read a statement posted to Howell Nature Center’s Facebook page on Jan. 15.
Prickles will be off exhibit until later this spring.