A father swan has been pictured staring at a graffiti slur against his species in Edinburgh as his cygnets lay on the grass nearby.
An angry passerby, who sent the image to the Daily Record, took the photo last night as she passed by the Union canal at Fountainbridge, while out on her government-sanctioned walk.
It shows a Cob, the name for a male swan, looking at a litter bin with the words 'Manky Swan' scrawled across it as his babies lay sleeping nearby.
The disgusted local said: "It's terrible what the swans around here have got to put up with.
"The poor dad was just standing there, looking at this awful insult.
"Probably hoping that the wee ones don't notice it."
Swans in Scotland have been known to clash with people in built up areas. Last year, we told how two adult birds and their five cygnets brought traffic to a standstill in Paisley as they tried to cross the road.
Footage from the scene showed people ushering the flock out of the way of oncoming traffic.
But the mother swan made it perfectly clear that their help was not needed - and took a peck at a woman trying to help the family stay together.
In a separate incident in 2019, footage showed Greenock cops using riot shields and a loaf of bread to control a rogue swan.
The bird landed on the busy street in Inverclyde, about 200 metres from its normal home in Murdieston Park.
A pair of police officers armed themselves with riot shields and bread and spent around half an hour shepherding the bird back home.
