FLIP PUTTHOFF * THE MORNING NEWS*The five trumpeter swans get their first look at the mill pond near Ponca after being released Wednesday morning.
Agencies Initiate Trumpeter Swan Program
By Flip PutthoffBOXLEY - The bugling of bull elk along the Buffalo National River has been joined by the trumpeting of trumpeter swans.
Wildlife officials hope the two will make beautiful music together for years to come after five of the rare trumpeter swans were released Wednesday in a mill pond near the Buffalo River.
FLIP PUTTHOFF * THE MORNING NEWS*The five trumpeter swans get their first look at the mill pond near Ponca after being released Wednesday morning. |
The swans - three males and two females that are brothers and sisters -- were trapped in Iowa and transported to the pond by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The hope is they will fly back to Iowa later this winter, but migrate back to the mill pond every fall and bring more trumpeter swans with them.
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The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and the National Park Service teamed up for the project to expand the areas where trumpeter swans spend the winter.
The birds were trapped in west-central Iowa in December and brought to Arkansas on Tuesday in plastic pet crates secured to a flat-bed trailer.
Motorists can see the swans by driving along Arkansas 43 between Ponca and Boxley in Newton County. The mill pond is close to the highway between the two villages.
People shouldn't feed the swans because they are susceptible to disease from mold on bread and corn, said Ron Andrews, a biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Each swan weighs about 35 pounds and has a wingspan of 8 feet. They are the largest waterfowl in North America.
Karen Rowe, a biologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission said the swans seemed content with their new winter home after they were released at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"Look at that. They're already preening and swimming like they've been here for years," she said while the webbed-footed swans swam single file in the shallow pond.
"They're looking for deeper water for those long legs," Andrews added.
It isn't known how long the swans will remain on the pond before flying back to Iowa.
"They could leave next week," according to Andrews. Trumpeter swans typically fly north from their wintering grounds in late February, he noted.
"They have flown in Iowa and hopefully have their compass readings, their celestial bearings, and will go back to Iowa," Andrews told about 20 wildlife officials and local residents who watched the release. Instinct brings them back to the same pond or lake to winter year after year.
The project is somewhat of an experiment that will be watched closely. "If they return year after year we'll have achieved our goal. If not we will move on to something else," said Andrews, who has been with the Iowa wildlife agency for 41 years.
"We're optimistic it will work, but swans are unpredictable," he said.
Wildlife experts hope the swans will remain together since they are from the same family.
Rowe emphasized the project isn't designed to establish a nesting pair of trumpeter swans at the pond. "That would be unnatural," she said.
The swans nest only as far south as northern Missouri, but winter as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.
Project leaders chose the mill pond because it is similar to a small private lake near Heber Springs, Magness Lake, where trumpeter swams also winter.
The released swans are last year's young, called cygnets, and are vulnerable to being killed by disease or accidents in their first years. They reach breeding age in about three to five years.
Andrews said about 75 percent of young trumpeter swans die before they reach breeding age. Common causes of death are flying into utility lines, predators, poaching and disease.
Trumpeter swans were hunted to near extinction in centuries past for their feathers. Their thick breast feathers were used as pillow filling, wing feathers were used as pens and other feathers were turned into powder puffs for applying makeup, Andrews revealed.
There were only about 70 trumpeter swans nationwide in the 1930s. Restoration efforts have brought that number to around 5,000. The number grows each year, Andrews said.
The swans are not an endangered species. The birds were considered for the classification until a nesting population of around 2,000 trumpeter swans was discovered in Alaska in the 1960s.
FAST FACTS
Trumpeters
* The male trumpeter is called a cob.
* The female trumpeter is called a pen.
* An adult trumpeter stands about 4 feet high.
* The trumpeter's call is resonant, deep and loud, sonorous and trumpetlike.
Source: dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/factsheets/birds/swan.htm
 FLIP PUTTHOFF * THE MORNING NEWS*Karen Rowe, a biologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, carries one of five trumpeter swans to the water Wednesday morning for release in a mill pond between Boxley and Ponca near the Buffalo National river. Three male and two female trumpeter swans were released in hopes they will migrate to the pond each year. |