Swan K02 a wildlife management success story
The March 24 issue of the Lake County Leader featured a picture of a Trumpeter Swan on the front page that was photographed by Emily Lonnevik of the Leader staff. This particular swan has an interesting history. As part of several efforts to reintroduce Trumpeter Swans in parts of the species’ historic range in the intermountain West, the Wyoming Wetlands Society’s Trumpeter Swan Fund, based in Jackson, Wyoming, was producing captive hatched and raised Trumpeter Swans for release at these reintroduction sites.
In 2009 the Trumpeter Swan Fund obtained authorization and permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to collect Trumpeter Swan eggs from selected nests in northern British Columbia. The fund then brought the eggs back to their facility for hatching and rearing, and then allocated the swans produced to the two existing Montana Trumpeter Swan reintroduction efforts at the Flathead Indian Reservation and the Blackfoot Valley. The birds were held in captivity and raised for their first year to enhance their survival when they were released.
In mid-July of 2010 wildlife biologists with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes transported 20 Trumpeter Swan yearlings from Wyoming to the Flathead Indian Reservation for release with 10 additional captive-raised yearling Trumpeter Swans hatched and raised at the Montana Waterfowl Foundation near Pablo. After health examinations and testing by a local veterinarian and Tribal biologists, the swans were released at Pablo National Wildlife Refuge on July 17, 2010. Each was fitted with a standard aluminum leg band and a red plastic neck collar with alpha-numeric codes for each individual swan to assist in later observations.
The swan (K02) that was the subject of Ms. Lonnevik’s photograph stayed at Pablo National Wildlife Refuge until mid-September of that year, after the annual molt of its feathers. It moved to East Bay at Flathead Lake and spent time there that fall. It spent most of the summer of 2011 back at that area. It was accompanied by another swan with collar number K05 with the same background during the summer of 2011. K05 initially paired and nested at another location near Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge in 2012-14 and spent the summers of those years in that area.
In the summer of 2015, K02 and K05 nested at a site in the East Bay area of Flathead Lake. During the nesting seasons of 2015-21, they produced 23 cygnets (nestlings) that all survived to fledging in September of those years. Hopefully, they will both return to the same area in the coming summer and again nest and produce young.
Dale Becker was a member of the CSKT Natural Resources Department for 35 years before his retirement last year. He founded the department’s Wildlife Management program. Becker resides in Kalispell.
