TTSS supported Swan Research Projects

Results of this study will inform current and future Interior Population trumpeter swan conservation by providing basic information about migration, year-round movements, mortality risks, and use of agricultural and other landscapes.

Click on the blue hotlinks to see if there is a GPS collared swan near you!

Transmitters are programmed to record a location every 15 minutes. These transmitters record high-resolution, high frequency location and related data and transmit those data through cellular phone networks, and will allow us to:

• Evaluate year-round swan movements, including determining the locations where swans spend the winter, and the timing and duration of their movements.
• Determine whether and where trumpeter swans make molt migrations.
• Evaluate year-round habitat use and selection patterns of trumpeter swans.
• Estimate annual survival rates of trumpeter swans, if sample sizes are adequate and fates (i.e., mortality events) can be determined.

Project Partners

Photographs courtesy of Southeast Idaho National Wildlife Refuge

Since 2017, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists have been collaring and tracking Trumpeter Swans nesting at three Idaho National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) in the Southeast Idaho NWR Complex: Camas NWR in Hamer, Bear Lake NWR near Montpelier, and Grays Lake NWR near Soda Springs.

The biologists have also been tracking mortality of Trumpeter Swan cygnets and analyzing shells of hatched and unhatched Trumpeter Swan eggs. They are looking for clues as to why cygnet mortality has been unusually high there since the late 1990s, as well as why breeding adult pairs are too often returning from their winter range without their young.

Through past and current donations to TTSS’ North American Swan Fund, we funded the purchase of four GPS collars for one swan at each of the three Refuges, plus a swan at Red Rock Lakes NWR.  The collars are being tested for climate condition performance as well as gaining initial information about the swans’ landscape use during their annual cycle.  Swans were collared with transmitters in summer, 2019.

The project is exploring the reasons behind the decline of Trumpeter Swan numbers in the Park since the 1960s. Yellowstone’s swans peaked at 85 birds in 1954, dropping to single digits in 2010. In 2011, the Park put a management plan in place to release swan cygnets into the Park. In 2018, 24 swans were counted but no cygnets were produced.

Montana State University master's student Evan Shields is updating the Park's historic swan data set and is examining new variables to describe conditions in the Park that could have led to the decline in the number of swans. His multi-year analysis will investigate new ways of relating the potential factors of swan decline to the Park's historic data.

“From what we have observed so far, the lack of new offspring in Yellowstone is likely a   combination of human disturbance at shorelines, eagle predation, and changes to the Park’s food chain and climate,” said Doug Smith, Yellowstone National Park’s senior wildlife biologist for the wolf, bird and elk programs.

Photo: top. Aerial view of first time swan parent on nest, May 2019. Bottom left: Public access is closed at nest-site area of first time swan parent, for several weeks, summer 2019. Bottom right: Prior to 2019, Yellowstone National Park had only 2 nesting pair that were occasionally successful in nesting, hatching and fledging cygnets.

Photos courtesy of Yellowstone National Park

Photograph by Margaret Smith.
This Iowa cygnet returns to its family after receiving the gray GPS collar which will transmit data locations for up to three years.

The Iowa "Track a Trumpeter Project" is a partnership between TTSS, Iowa State University, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Friends of Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge, the Blank Park Zoo, and private individuals.

Learn more about the project, watch videos of the project, and explore the movements of the swans at the online map created by Iowa State University students.

In September 2017, nine Iowa cygnets from different swan families received lightweight, solar and battery power GPS collars.  The collars collect hourly readings that can be downloaded twice a day, depending on cell phone coverage.  In early 2018, Iowa State University ornithology students began tracking and analyzing data locations of this three year project. Additional cygnets were collared in 2018. In 2019, a total of 15 cygnets received tracking collars.

The research is collecting data about summering and wintering areas, roosting sites, feeding patterns, migrations, and possibly differences in movements between female and male swans.

The collars also track swan deaths. By 2019, 4 cygnets had died with suspected cause of death from power line collisions.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources estimates that nearly three quarters of Iowa swans die before they reach age 3. The collars will help confirm mortality numbers and causes.

Photograph by Stephen R. Jones
The North American Swan Fund is helping to fund research by University of Nebraska's master student Heather Johnson. She is studying the breeding success of the High Plains Flock to provide a baseline for swan managers.

This is a first time look at the reproductive success of the High Plains Flock since their reintroduction in the 1960s at Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.