UPDATE: Former Longboat Key swan found dead

UPDATE: On Tuesday, medical staff concluded that the swan died by a wild animal attack. 

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Community Affairs Director Kaitlyn Perez said in an email Tuesday evening that the necropsy conducted on the female swan showed no signs or evidence of projectiles. 

Previously: The daughter of a former Longboat Key swan mating pair was found dead Monday morning in a Sarasota residential community, possibly killed by gunfire, a caretaker said. 

About three years ago, the female swan and her male sibling, offspring of Longboat Key swans Stan and Wendy, were moved to Camelot Lakes, near Clark Road and Interstate 75, from Longboat Key through the Gracie Swan Foundation. The hope was they would become a mating pair. 

Longboat Key swankeeper David Novak said the two offspring had indeed built a nest near Camelot Lakes. The pair had been regularly fed by their caretakers there. On Sunday evening, the pair was doing well, but on Monday morning, a caretaker found the female dead and said there were holes in both sides of her neck, which resembled bullet holes. 

“Why anybody in the world would want to do this I can’t fathom,” Don Wise, who helps care for the swans at Camelot Lakes, said. “And what about the shooting in a residential area? It could have been a homosapien as well as a swan. Both are important.”

Because the swans are considered exotic pets, this is not a case to be handled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It’s a criminal case for local authorities, Novak said.

Novak advised those at Camelot Lakes to call Sarasota County Animal Services and to not to bury the swan so authorities could inspect it.

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Community Affairs Director Kaitlyn Perez said the office's agricultural unit deputies responded just after 1 p.m. Monday. The deputies transported the swan to a local vent pending further investigation, Perez said in an email. The investigation will include a necropsy to determine a cause of death. 

Those at Camelot Lakes said they have never received complaints about the swans.

Because male swans won’t sit on eggs and incubate them, the pair’s nest had to be disposed of after the mother’s death.

“It was going to be their first nest,” Novak said.

Camelot Lakes residents had been waiting for the pair to mature and have cygnets, and now they say, they are crushed.

“We had hoped this year would be the year they were old enough to give us baby cygnets,” Wise said.

The Camelot Lakes caretakers will work to bring the male swan back to the original lake he and his mate were placed in. Currently, the male swan is guarding the spot where the female was found dead. The caretakers said if the male swan doesn’t move on his own, they will try and move him. Camelot Lakes is home to another male swan, so they are considering putting the two males together so they have companionship.

“We’re at a loss at this point,” Wise said. “Two-and-a-half years in the making and the male swan is heartbroken and then some.”