Ontario’s trumpeter swans: How preservation of the rare species continues

Trumpeter Conservation Ontario was on site in Washago tagging and banding trumpeter swans for preservation and research purposes.

Sounds of honking trumpeter swans can be heard down by the shores at Quetton Dock in Washago, Ont., a place where the magical birds love to flock to.

If you head there for a visit, you could be lucky and catch a couple of the magical birds flying overhead.

Dozens of trumpeter swans have been hanging out in Lake Couchiching’s three-foot waters near the shore, a perfect spot for them filled with natural forage, like aquatic plants.

The large white birds are a distinct species from the more common mute swans found in places like Stratford, Ont. Mute swans have orange bills, while trumpeters have bills that are all black.

Preserving Trumpeter Swans in Ontario

Recently on site in Washago was the non-profit and charitable group Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario, a team of volunteers, many retired, who are working to ensure the continued existence of wild trumpeter swans in Ontario.

The group was tagging and banding them to keep up the preservation of the birds, a species that nearly became extinct in the province.

“The tagging is one of the simplest ways to track,” said Donna Lewis, board member of Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario, which is volunteer-based and volunteer-run. “We can track movements of swans.”

Lewis said the tags, which last roughly five years, can reveal many things like the age of the swans.

For example, there’s one swan the group has been tracking who has been producing babies, known as cygnets, for many years.

Like people, Lewis said while swans usually mate for life, they also divorce. And widows and widowers will get another mate again.

The banding involves putting a band on the leg, on the left for a female and on the right for a male. Each band has a number that can be entered into Bird Studies Canada and other tracking devices. The band also shows the location of the banding.

The tags and bands also help the group to learn swans’ family history, especially older ones. The volunteers can see dominant pairs and pairs that are reproducing. They’re also able to take blood samples to check how much lead is in the swan’s system and if they’ve been exposed to avian flu.

The tagging doesn’t harm the bird, according to Nellissa Stalenhoef, Senior Veterinarian at the National Wildlife Centre and PhD Candidate at University of Guelph, who was tagging on site.

She explains that it’s like placing ear tags in cattle.

“So they tolerate the tags fairly well. They don’t jump, it doesn’t seem to be painful for them,” Stalenhoef said.

Lead-poisoning

One of the biggest threats to trumpeter swans is lead-poisoning, something that’s primarily human-caused, according to Stalenhoef.

Lewis said the current laws for hunting ammunition over waterways allow only steel, but there was a time when it was legal to use lead pellets, which can still be found in water, contaminating the environment.

Most cases of human-caused lead poisoning today come from anglers’ fishing tackle including the use of lead sinkers attached to fishing lines, which birds can mistake for food, causing severe illness, according to Stalenhoef.

To help with research in this area, experts have a system to measure lead inside of a swan.

During the tagging process, Stalenhoef uses an XRF, a portable X-ray fluorescence device that looks like a grocery store scanner. It gets placed against the swan’s wing bone, and measures elemental content, particularly lead, an element that gets stored in bone over time.

Stalenhoef wants to raise awareness about non-toxic alternatives that aren’t commonly used like steel and tungsten sinkers for fishing.

Swanitis

It’s the endearing term the group uses for those who get hooked on swans, wanting to come see, visit and support in the restoration efforts.

These volunteers have such a love of trumpeter swans, they’ve even coined an endearing term for it.

“When you get hooked on swans, we call it Swanitis,” said Susan Best, president of Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario. “And it happens to just about everybody. You get down here, you get watching them. They’re just so magical. To see the way they interact with their families, the way that they behave. And you want to come back.”

Don’t feed the swans

One of the strong messages the group wanted to get across to the public was to not feed the swans.

“It’s like feeding your kids simply candy or potato chips,” said Lewis. “They’re not going to grow right. Take pictures, leave footprints and just be kind to the environment.”

Washago has plenty of natural forage for the waterfowl, which is why the swans are there and that natural forage is their best diet, according to experts.

If people feed them, it brings them up on land, congregates them and can cause disease.

“Come and enjoy the swans but don’t feed them,” said Best. “They don’t need to be fed. If you love them enough to feed them, love them enough not to.”

Restoration efforts

Trumpeter swans, native to North America, are the largest swans in the world and Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario has been primarily raising awareness to the public on preserving the species, since, according to experts, the swans have been doing a pretty good job at the restoring part.

Before 1984, we would not have been so lucky to encounter these rare but magnificent creatures, as there were no free-flying swans in Ontario. The last trumpeter swan in the province was shot at Long Point on Lake Erie, back when it was legal to hunt swans for meat, feathers and skin. That incident marked a time in history when the species reached near extinction.

But it was a biologist named Harry Lumsden, from Aurora, Ont., who started the restoration efforts. Through his program, Lumsden brought back the beloved swans. When he died in 2022, he left a legacy that continues through the efforts of volunteers at Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario.

“All of these swans have been restored predominantly by retired people and volunteers,” said Best. “We restored a species by volunteers, which is a marvelous story, I think.”

“It’s a good news story,” Lewis added. “It’s about people doing the right thing and we got them back.”

According to the group’s count, there are currently 3,200 free-flying swans in Ontario.

Engage with preservation

The conservation group encourages the public to report swan sightings by email to [e-mail], the Facebook group page or the website.

They ask for the date, location with GPS coordinates, wing tag number and leg band number.

Since Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario is a charity, it relies on donations from the community.

To donate, people can go to Canada Helps and search for Trumpeter Swan Conservation Ontario or they can send an e-transfer to [e-mail].

Everyone who donates will get an official tax receipt.