Hunters Reminded To Know Swans From Geese

Once found throughout North America, trumpeter swans were nearly eradicated by the early 1990s as a result of hunting and habitat loss.

The Idaho Fish and Game warns that hunters looking for snow geese should look for their black wing tips and that it is not legal to shoot swans. Swans can easily be identified by their long necks and white bodies.

To help save the magnificent bird from extinction, swans were fed grain during most winter months at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana from 1935 to 1992.

Although the artificial feeding and sanctuaries like Red Rocks and Yellowstone National Park have saved the population from extinction, these actions have also discouraged their traditional southward migration. Since present wintering locations in the tri-state area of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will not support the entire population, biologists are attempting to restore swan migrations to more southern latitudes.

A large portion of the Rocky Mountain trumpeter swan population has been relocated from the Red Rocks vicinity since 1987. Due primarily to mistaken identity, some of those birds have been shot.

“To lose any one of the swans that learned to migrate to new wintering area is a real misfortune,” state waterfowl manager Gary Will said.