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Pretty, Bad
Mute swans in Oregon
BY ELIOT TREICHEL
“I
wish they were ugly,” says Rick
Boatner, Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s invasive species and
wildlife integrity coordinator, “but they’re
really quite beautiful.”
He’s speaking of the mute swan, the
only bird on the Oregon Invasive Species
Council’s 100 Worst list — a bird that is
decidedly not ugly. “They get people’s
emotions up,” Boatner says, in no small
part because of their looks. “These are
political birds.”
The mute swan (Cygnus olor), a native of
northern and central Eurasia, was brought to
the U.S. late in the 19th century to decorate
parks and estates. It’s easy to see why: On
water, mute swans move with grace. Their
all-white plumage and long, elegant necks
are arresting. In mating rituals, two birds
will sometimes face one another and gently
touch heads — their mirrored necks forming
the iconic shape of a heart.
While they are less vocal than other
swans, mute swans are not actually mute.
And in contrast to their refi nement, they
can be quite aggressive, hissing at and
attacking other waterfowl, dogs and even
people when they feel their territory is
being invaded. It’s this aggressiveness,
along with their lack of natural predators
and their heavy consumption of submerged
aquatic vegetation, that makes the mute
swan so threatening to native wildlife.
Mute swans don’t appear to migrate,
and their yearlong use of an area thins the
amount of food available to transitional
birds, including trumpeter and tundra
swans. Not only do mute swans pull up
vegetation by the roots, they also forcefully
paddle with their feet, breaking whole
plants loose. Without the shelter provided
by submerged vegetation, fi sh hatchlings,
native turtles and even microinvertebrates,
those little creatures that make up such
an important part of the food chain, are
harmed.
Boatner says ODFW doesn’t have a
very clear count on the number of mute
swans in the wild. Certainly the numbers
aren’t as daunting as they are around the
Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, where
a few escaped birds turned into fl ocks of
several thousand and are still growing.
In Oregon, mute swans are classifi ed as a
controlled species. Some landowners utilize
the birds to help manage Canada goose
populations, while others still keep them as
ornamentals. Although it is illegal to import
mute swans, it is legal to possess and sell
them as long as the males are neutered or
the bird’s wings are pinioned (clipped so
they can’t fl y). Do residents always follow
the law? According to Boatner, no.
“Most people don’t even consider if
there are laws or regulations in place before
purchasing swans,” he says, noting how
easy it is to get birds today via the internet.
When ODFW receives notice of a mute
swan in the wild, they will lethally remove
it. In other cases they try to work directly
with landowners, who oftentimes use other
control measures such as addling or oiling
eggs so they won’t hatch.
While it likely will be impossible to
eradicate mute swans from Oregon, it may
still be possible to keep the population in
check. To Boatner, good information is
crucial: “There is not enough manpower or
funding to monitor or eradicate all invasive
species, so education is a key factor to
protect the state.”
The idiom “swan song” refers to an
individual’s fi nal act before retirement.
It comes from the old belief that mute
swans were silent during their lives, right
up to their deaths, when they would sing
an exquisite song. It’s an eerily lovely
image, but also a legend. For many folks
concerned about invasive species, it’d be
okay if mute swans sang goodbye — even
better if they never really stayed in the fi rst
place. à
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EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 21, 2011 13