Social and the mainstream press have been running stories showing swans and dolphins returning to the canals of Venice in the wake of the shutdowns to limit the coronavirus.  The possible silver lining to the overwhelming tragedy in Italy appears, however, to be largely fiction.

As reported by Snopes: “The dolphins shown in the video, it turns out, were not swimming in the iconic canals of Venice, but off the coast of Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea,” 653 km from Venice. Sightings of dolphins in Sardina predate the coronavirus outbreak by many years. 

And what about the swans? National Geographic points out that the swan sightings were real, but not described accurately. “The swans in the viral posts regularly appear in the canals of Burano, a small island in the greater Venice metropolitan area, where the photos were taken,” National Geographic reported. The swans were already regulars in Burano before the coronavirus tore across Italy.

The lesson here is one that we already know — don’t believe everything you see on the internet.