Cygnus falconeri, the Giant Swan, was a very large Siculo

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

-Maltese

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 swan

Swan

Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...

 known from the Middle Pleistocene

Middle Pleistocene

The Middle Pleistocene, more specifically referred to as the Ionian stage, is a period of geologic time from ca. 781 to 126 thousand years ago....

. Its dimensions are described as exceeding those of the living Mute Swan

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...

 by one-third, which would give a bill-to-tail length of about 190–210 cm (based on 145–160 cm for C. olor). It would have been taller, though not heavier, than the region's dwarf elephants

Elephas falconeri

Elephas falconeri is an extinct Siculo-Maltese species of elephant closely related to the modern Asian elephant...

. Due to its size, it may have been flightless. It became extinct before the increase in human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

 activity in the region (see Holocene extinction event

Holocene extinction event

The Holocene extinction refers to the extinction of species during the present Holocene epoch . The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods; a sizeable fraction of these extinctions are occurring in the...

), so its disappearance is thought to have resulted from extreme climate fluctuations

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 or the arrival of superior predators and competitors

Competition (biology)

Competition is an interaction between organisms or species, in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another. Limited supply of at least one resource used by both is required. Competition both within and between species is an important topic in ecology, especially community ecology...

.