What would a world without humans look like? As countries go under lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID–19, photos that seemed to have the answer went viral on social media. They showed swans and even a dolphin popping up in the canals of Venice. As one observer put it enthusiastically, “Nature just hit the reset button.”

As it turns out, those posts were more wishful thinking than reality.

As National Geographic reports, "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. The “Venetian” dolphins were filmed at a port in Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of miles away."

For many millions of people around the world, though, it was a small sign of hope as the country’s death toll rose above 2,500 on March 17.

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Here are some of those (now-debunked) tweets:

Thought I’d spread abit of positivity for you guys. Since the lockdown of Venice without the pollution from boats the water has been begun to clear up and a dolphin has been spotted in the canal for the first time in nearly 60 years! #venice pic.twitter.com/dbq4mGhfnp — Jack (@NotLacazette) March 17, 2020

Mother Earth is slowly recovering from us. Snapshot of #Venice pic.twitter.com/X6S5MzkbdX — Jacob Schot (@Schot_Capital) March 17, 2020

#venice

An unexpected side effect of the pandemic: Water's flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever.

The fish are visible, the swans returned pic.twitter.com/crWf4kdZ1M — Aurel Boriçi (@AurelBoriciBT) March 18, 2020

The part about the waters looking clearer, at least, is true. In Venice, the canals normally teeming with tourists and boat traffic are nearly empty. Most nonessential travel to countries in the European Union is banned and Italy, the epicenter of the outbreak on the continent, has closed all nonessential businesses.

But the Venice mayor's office told CNN that while the canals might look cleaner than before the lockdown, the water quality hasn't necessarily improved.

"The water now looks clearer because there is less traffic on the canals, allowing the sediment to stay at the bottom," a spokesman told CNN. "It's because there is less [of the] boat traffic that usually brings sediment to the top of the water's surface."

SEE ALSO: Coronavirus should be a wake-up call to our treatment of the animal world

That’s not to say the lockdown hasn’t had any positive environmental effects for a city that months before was battling overtourism.

"The air, however, is less polluted since there are less vaporetti and boat traffic than usual because of the restricted movement of residents," the spokesman said, referring to the public waterbus, the Vaporetto.

Italians have increasingly turned to social media to spread positivity in the weeks since lockdown measures were implemented. Videos of people singing in unison from their balconies have gone viral and even inspired U2 frontman Bono to release new music on his Instagram and Facebook pages.

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