Trumpeter Swan
Cygnus buccinator

Large and elegant, these white-as-snow water birds attracted the attention of 19th century hunters, who nearly drove them extinct as they pursued them for their meat, feathers, and skins. Captive breeding programs, including a major one at the Minnesota Zoo, helped bring them back from the brink.

What They Eat
Adult swans forage for aquatic vegetation with their heads underwater. Cygnets eat insects and other invertebrates.

Where They Live
Trumpeter swans thrive in the shallows of sheltered freshwater lakes, rivers, and ponds.

What They Do
Long necks make it easy for trumpeter swans to forage on the abundant vegetation available below the surface of shallow lakes and ponds. Migration allows them to tap the resources of different locations at different times of the year.

How They’re Doing
Trumpeter swans have undergone a heartwarming comeback since being eliminated from Minnesota in the 1800s. Thanks to captive breeding programs and habitat protection efforts, trumpeter swans now number in the 2,000s in Minnesota with more than 4,000 across the continent/hemisphere.

Trumpeter Swan

• The trumpeter swan gets its name from its boisterous honk, which sounds like a trumpet or French horn.
• Trumpeter swans are the largest swans and among the world’s largest birds.
• Male swans are called cobs and females are called pens. The young are called cygnets.
• Trumpeter swans use their two eyes independently.
• A trumpeter swan’s nest mound may be up to 12 feet in diameter - the size of the free-throw circle on a basketball court.
• Trumpeter swans have been known to live more than 24 years.
• Trumpeter swans are very sensitive to lead poisoning from ammunition they find when foraging for food.

Things you can do

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Trumpeter Swan

Hunted extensively for feathers, meat, and sport, trumpeter swans were extirpated from Minnesota in the late 1800s. Reintroduction efforts began in 1966. Today Minnesota is home to more than 2,000 trumpeter swans.

Things the Zoo's Done/Doing

The Minnesota Zoo began working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 1980 to restore trumpeter swans to Minnesota. The Zoo acquired three pairs of swans and began breeding them to produce young that could be released into the wild. Young adult swans were released periodically beginning in 1986. All told, the Zoo has raised and released more than 170 trumpeter swans into the wild.

 

Conservation Notes

A century ago, hunters killed many trumpeter swans for feathers, skins, and meat. By 1884, trumpeter swans were no longer found in Minnesota, and by 1958 fewer than 1,000 trumpeter swans lived in the wild. In 1966, Hennepin Parks began breeding trumpeter swans. In 1980 the Minnesota Zoo received a breeding pair from Hennepin Parks and signed an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to help reintroduce swans to Minnesota. In the 1980s, the DNR collected eggs from Alaska swans and raised the young in Minnesota. By 2009, the Minnesota Zoo had raised and released 172 swans. More than 4,400 swans now fly free, including more than 2,000 in Minnesota. The trumpeter swan was removed from the endangered species list a few years ago.

Though the trumpeter swan is legally protected from hunting, occasionally adults are shot. Young trumpeter swans are susceptible to lead poisoning.

Trumpeter Swan

Range and Habitat
Trumpeter swans inhabit shallow, sheltered and preferably fresh waters. Their historic range stretched across much of North America. Today they are found in small, isolated areas in Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta, Wyoming, and Montana as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin, where they have been reintroduced. Swans migrate south to the central United States in fall and far north to their breeding grounds in spring.

Description
Trumpeter swans have big bodies, long necks, black bills, and black webbed feet. When they hatch, trumpeter swans are light gray and downy. Gradually they grow gray feathers. Adults have snowy, all-white plumage. Wingspan in the male is 8 feet, compared with 6 feet for the female. Body length is 56–62 inches for adult males, with adult females at 55–58 inches. Body weight ranges from 21 to 38 pounds, with an average of 28 pounds for the males and about 23 pounds for the females.

Habits and Adaptations
Trumpeter swans mate for life. Family members paddle around together as they forage for vegetation. They communicate with each other by visual displays and calls. In addition to trumpeting sounds, trumpeter swans gurgle, burp, and hiss. Although they historically are migratory birds, introduced birds tend not to migrate.

Eat and Be Eaten
Newly hatched cygnets eat mainly invertebrate animals, including insects and crustaceans. Adults eat a variety of marsh and aquatic freshwater plants, sticking their tails into the air as they tip forward to forage with their long necks in the water below. Many animals, including raccoons, ravens, coyotes, wolves, and mink, eat trumpeter swan eggs and/or young. Few predators are able to capture adults.

Life History
Swans usually mate for life. Unlike most other waterfowl, both males and females help build the nest, which is made of plant material. A mated pair will vigorously defend the mating, nesting, and cygnet feeding grounds. The female begins laying 3–10 eggs in late April or early May and finishes in in mid-May. She incubates the eggs until they hatch 33–37 days after they are laid. Hatching requires about two days. Cygnets use a thorn-like projection on the tip of their bill called an egg tooth to break through the shell. Cygnets weigh about 7 ounces at hatch and grow over the summer to 15 pounds. Both parents care for them until they fledge at 15 weeks.