Drought Threatens Trumpeter Swans

Fish and Game biologists will work with other agencies to save as many trumpeter swans as possible this winter at Harriman State Park as drought reduces swan feeding areas. Extreme drought has caused unusual conditions at Harriman and adjacent areas of the Henrys Fork with extremely low water conditions expected for the winter of 2001-2002. This will greatly limit food for wintering trumpeter swans and raise the likelihood of swans dying this winter. In the last 10 years, the number of trumpeter swans that summer in Canada and winter at or migrate through the park has increased and require more food than is available in the park. A much smaller number of resident trumpeter swans use the park year round and are feeling the effects of increased competition for limited food resources as Canadian trumpeter swans increase. Because of the current drought, flows on the Henrys Fork will be the lowest in several decades which will probably cause the river to freeze over. If the river freezes over, any remaining swans will not have food. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together in an attempt to minimize the loss of swans at Harriman this winter. For the past decade, hazing (chasing swans away) at the park and adjacent areas has been conducted to encourage wintering swans to seek other wintering grounds and to decrease the numbers of wintering swans on the Henrys Fork. Because of the emergency drought conditions, hazing efforts at Harriman will be intensified from two days each week last winter to five-to-seven days a week this winter. Hazing will also begin earlier. To reduce the potential for swan mortality during this emergency situation, the four agencies involved will work together to trap and relocate up to 50 young swans, or cygnets, to wintering areas further south. Biologists hope that relocated cygnets will more readily accept new wintering areas than adult swans which typically return to their traditional wintering areas. The relocated cygnets will be monitored closely in order to compare mortality rates of these cygnets with cygnets that are left to winter at Harriman. Should the river freeze at the park and trumpeter swans begin to die, supplemental feeding is not planned because it would encourage non-migratory behavior in the swans at the park as well as increase the chance of disease outbreaks in the weakened swans. Although winter translocation is not a preferred long-term method of trumpeter swan management, this effort is an attempt to deal with this year's emergency situation. For more information contact: Keith Hobbs, Park Manager, Harriman State Park (208) 558-7368 or Tom Hemker, State Waterfowl Manager, Idaho Fish and Game (208) 334-2920