Tundra Swan History Tour

By Joe Kosack 
PGC Information Specialist

The whistler's historical background in colonial America is somewhat hard to track. It seems unlikely that America's enterprising colonists missed the family meal opportunities one swan could provide. But mention of the birds seems to have eluded most early historical records. The birds were considered sporting to hunt and were respected for their alertness and strength.

Audubon apparently was fascinated by the tundra swan. In his An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America, he presented considerable information about American swans, or "Cygnus americanus of SHARPLESS." Audubon seemed to be reporting on the confusion surrounding the species. He even wrote about spending time analyzing three swan specimens obtained in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas. He used rum to preserve the swan remains.

In his writings, which were published by Audubon, Sharpless went to great lengths to describe the swan's toughness and wariness, particularly as it related to hunting, which is no doubt how he and many other nineteenth century birders became familiar with the species. He also noted that if they were less than six years old, swans, "are very tender and delicious eating."

Historical swan references typically have hunting connotations because that's what wildlife was used for by our forefathers, who often rationalized that the bigger the animal, the more meals it could provide. Given the tundra swan's size - 10 to 18 pounds, it was considered by many to be well worth pursuing. There seems little doubt that some Pennsylvanians admired the grace and beauty of swans. But their observations weren't as apt to be recorded.

Tundra swans withstood the unregulated harvest most American wildlife species were subjected to prior to the twentieth century. Valued for their down and flesh, tundra swans were routinely taken by hunters, even market hunters. But the exploitation effort wasn't as unrelenting as that which consumed the trumpeter swan. As the 1900s opened, tundra swan numbers were down from historical average population levels. But there were few waterfowl species that didn't suffer a similar fate. It was a sign of the times, another reason why American wildlife conservation movement would soon begin. Trumpeters were in worse shape.

Trumpeter swans were decimated on their northern nesting areas in the mid to late 1800s. Unlike tundra swans, which nested in more remote arctic regions, trumpeters nested in the northern United States, where they were subjected to unrelenting hunting pressure by American Indians and settlers. Trumpeters, in fact, were killed throughout their semiannual migrations, on their wintering grounds and while they nested. Hundreds of thousands of swan skins and quills were exported to Europe in the mid 1800s to satisfy an insatiable market. Even their cygnets were taken from nests. The pressure on the resource was incredible.

Since the mid 1960s, the North American tundra swan populations appear to have at least doubled, according to some researchers. The eastern wintering population numbers 90,000 to 100,000; the western, 60,000 to 70,000. In 1999, 6,900 hunters reported taking about 3,600 swans from the eastern population; in the West, 3,300 hunters, took about 1,400 swans (including some trumpeters).