By Alice Martin

Friends of a Feather

Mute, Tundra, Trumpeter…the three Swans of Minnesota.  

The mute Swan is the swan of fairytales because of the way it holds its neck in that “C” or “S” shape and slightly lifts its wings when swimming.  Mute Swans are not native to North America but are descended from swans imported from Europe in the mid-1800s through the early 1900s to adorn large estates, city parks and zoos. Escapees established breeding populations across the northern part of the U.S. They are now kind of a nightmare because their voracious appetites…an individual swan may eat up to 20 pounds of submerged aquatic vegetation a day…and aggressive behavior…they attack other waterfowl and have even been known to attack canoeists, kayakers, and pedestrians who wander too close to a nest or chicks…often disturb local ecosystems and displace native species.  

In Minnesota, you will rarely if ever see a mute Swan in the wild because they are a regulated invasive species, that is, they can be bought, sold, possessed and transported but cannot be released into a free-living space. If they are released and found, the Minnesota DNR removes them via destruction of nests and eggs or lethally by authorized individuals.  

We only see the Tundra Swans during migration.  It is not easy to distinguish the Tundra Swan from the Trumpeter Swan.  The most noticeable differences are their call, the Tundra Swans are smaller than the Trumpeters and have a yellow spot in front of their eye at the base of the bill.  Those spots, however, can be very small which adds to the difficulty of identification. Finally, the Tundra’s bill, although black like the Trumpeters, is slightly concave.  

The Trumpeter Swan is the one you commonly see on our lakes and rivers.  Trumpeter Swans are our biggest native waterfowl, stretching to 6 feet in length and weighing more than 25 pounds making it almost twice as massive as a Tundra Swan. Getting airborne requires a lumbering takeoff along a 100-yard runway, and when a large flock takes off, it can almost sound like horses running.

We never get close enough to them to appreciate their size, but if you want to get an idea of just how large they are, stop at the little museum at the headquarters of the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge which is easy to locate on maps and accessible by gravel roads.  They have a “stuffed” Trumpeter Swan and standing next to it might make you take a deep breath. It is impressive.

Starting in the 1600s, market hunters and feather collectors had decimated Trumpeter Swans populations by the late 1800s. Swan feathers adorned fashionable hats, women used swan skins as powder puffs, and the birds’ long flight feathers were coveted for writing quills. There was not a single Trumpeter Swan in Minnesota by the 1880’s.  By the time and swan restoration projects started in Minnesota in the 1960’s, there were only 59 Trumpeters left in the whole country, all located in the Red Rock Lakes region in Montana.  

In the 1960’s, Minnesota conservationists obtained 40 swans from Montana to establish a breeding flock.  In 1980 the Nongame Wildlife Program was created and in 1981, Minnesotans donated $500,000 which helped accelerate the swan restoration project.  

Over the years, more swans and eggs were collected from Red Rocks and from Alaska and by 1987 a few swans at a time were being released in various locations across the state. By 2004 the Minnesota flock consisted of 2,000 birds. 

In 2015, the Nongame Wildlife Program collaborated with several other agencies to carry out a statewide Trumpeter Swan count.  The tally came to 17,021 suggesting that there were about 1,700 nesting pairs in the state.  By 2020, the count was at over 30,000 birds and in 2022 the population was estimated to be around 51,860.

If you are interested in a more exhaustive article on the restoration efforts, just Google the Minnesota DNR Trumpeter Swan Restoration Project. The return of the Trumpeter Swan is one of the most incredible stories of saving a species.

The firsts swans to be released in southwestern Minnesota happened in 1995.  I distinctly remember the first time I saw swans in the wild.  It was in September 1996 when I was taking my son to college in Morris and we observed a good-sized flock of swans floating on a pond next to the road.  I practically didn’t believe my eyes. “Are those swans?”  Now they are so common that we almost take them for granted    

Some states have a hunting season on Swans, but not Minnesota.  We just enjoy them for their beauty even though there are some people who think there are too many of them now.  Considering how they were virtually made extinct, there just can’t be too many, can there?

Swans have long been associated with ideals of romance. Added to their elegant outlines and all-white plumage is their tendency to form permanent pair bonds.  Beautiful birds in so many ways.  A flock of swans flying overhead, and they are frequently at a fairly low altitude, never loses its breathtaking power.