Please don't shoot the swans. My new post at 10,000 birds is here.
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Since they are what they eat, the most persuasive empirical argument against potting swan is that whatever eats the bottom of a pond tastes accordingly vile.
The upped swans that still grace some gaudy night high tables are herded away from water to get them ready for the event.
What do these hunters think they are shooting? Snow geese? We get both species in considerable numbers in Washington state's Skagit river delta during the winter. It's easy to tell them apart even from a considerable distance. Many hundreds of them -- snow geese. A dozen or two -- trumpeters.
They look a lot like tundra swans.
I'm a member at the Minnesota Zoo, and in the summer it's always a joy to see the trumpeter swans, which sometimes even fly over my home. (I live in Eagan, within a couple of miles of the zoo. If a tiger gets out, I'll be . . . concerned. But I doubt they will. The enclosures are very well constructed.) The swans are not captive; although the original pair released into the zoo's pond had their wings clipped, they were allowed to grow their feathers back in the next molt and migrated south for the winter. The zoo then embarked on a captive breeding program, releasing hundreds of swans. They discontinued the program because it had exceeded its goals, and all the swans you may see at the zoo today are wild descendents of those original releases, who apparently think the zoo's a great place to raise a family. ;-)