Two swans have been found unable to appear in the irrigation canal beside the rice fields in Yotsukaido City, Chiba Prefecture, and local residents are worried.
The prefecture will dispatch staff to consider future measures.
In Ueno, Yotsukaido City, two swans have entered the irrigation canal, which is about 60 cm wide and about 1 meter deep, on the side of the rice field, and cannot get out.
Both swans are more than a meter long, and a nearby resident was found in an aqueduct last month.
Even this month, the swan remains in the irrigation canal and can move, but the width of the irrigation canal is so narrow that it cannot spread its wings, making it impossible to take off.
You can see the swan stretching its neck out of the irrigation canal and eating the grass that grows aside.
The irrigation canal, where swans are no longer available, is right next to the road, and on the 10th, about 10 residents gathered to watch over the two birds.
Some people gave cabbage as food.
A man living nearby said, "I'm worried every day and come to see it. I'm worried if the swans will fly away."
Another woman said, "I'm sorry because I've been in the irrigation canal all the time. I'm worried if it doesn't fly even if it gets warm. At that time, I want the prefecture to protect it."
The Chiba Prefectural Nature Conservation Division has not seen any injuries or illnesses in the swans so far, so we have not dispatched staff to take them out of the irrigation canals.
However, we will dispatch staff to NHK to check the situation at the site and consider future measures.
On the other hand, Chiba Prefecture is calling on swans to stay away from the swan, saying that there is a risk of spreading the infection when people approach wild birds amid a series of bird flu outbreaks in the prefecture.
Expert "Slope with a board"
Kazuhiko Hirata, a researcher at the Chiba Prefectural Central Museum, who specializes in bird ecology and is familiar with wild bird conservation issues, said, "This swan is seen as a mute swan, but it can also trigger the spread of bird inluenza, so acts such as feeding and touching it. Please do not do it. "
On top of that, Mr. Hirata said, "As a way to help the swan, if you put down a wooden board in the irrigation canal and make it like a gentle slope, I think that the swan can walk up the board by itself without touching it." I was talking.