DANVILLE – When you pass the swan pond on North Vermilion Street at Sunset Memorial Park these days, you might think that Joe and Nellie have put on weight.

Not so, said Mike Puhr, operations manager at Sunset. "It actually is a larger, new pair of swans, Joe and Nellie No. 10, which we brought in Feb. 21."

Puhr has been involved with the swans the 38 years he's worked for Sunset. The new couple are a 4-year-old breeder pair from Knox Swan Farm in North Barrington, Wis., which were purchased to keep the tradition of having baby swans, called cygnets, each spring.

Sunset first put swans on the pond in 1934 and had their first cygnets the following spring.

"Joe and Nellie No. 9 have now retired to the back pond at the cemetery," Puhr said. "Poor Joe had a bad hip, and with the couple getting on in age, they weren't producing any new little ones that the community always looks forward to seeing."

The past few years, there have been no cygnets. A combination of no eggs being laid, a wild animal getting to the eggs and the inability to save some prospective little ones has meant no babies for the public to ooh and aah over.

"With the situation, getting a new pair has been something Sunset has considered for about a year now," said Lindsay Murphy, Life Celebration coordinator at Sunset.

Puhr said swans can live up to 20 years, but probably only reproduce about 10 of those years.

"You can generally tell by the number of eggs laid and whether they hatch or not, if time is running out," Puhr explained.

Joe and Nellie No. 9 were moved to the back pond because mute swans, which are native to Europe and Asia, are very territorial. In fact, Puhr said, the swans' aggressiveness is what keeps the geese away from the ponds where people come and sit on benches and just watch the swans glide across the water.

The plan now is just to wait and see.

"We're hoping for a nice clutch (group) of fertile eggs this spring," Puhr said. "The eggs traditionally hatch around Mother's Day."

Once the cygnets reach a certain age, they will be removed from the pond and sold, since they will become a threat to the adults' territory.