Binder Park Zoo

Conservation Projects

The Trumperer Swan

Weighing up to 35 pounds when fully grown with a wing span of almost 8 feet, the trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl in the world. In the 1800’s trumpeter swans were very abundant in Michigan, but by 1933, there were only about 66 pairs remaining in the entire continental United States and none were found in Michigan. As settlers moved into remote areas they drained wetlands, destroying habitat and excessively hunted swans for their beautiful feathers. In the early 1980s the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in collaboration with the Kellogg Biological Station near Battle Creek, Michigan, began the trumpeter swan reintroduction program. Eggs collected from captive swans in zoos and remaining wild swans breeding in Alaska were reared in captivity to begin the program of reintroducing the trumpeters back into Michigan. The young, or cygnets, were raised in captivity for two years before being paired with a mate and released in strategic locations throughout the state. The pairs soon reproduced and by 2000, there were over 400 trumpeter swans in the state of Michigan. Binder Park Zoo began participating in the program in 1991 when we received a captive reared breeding pair from the Kellogg Biological Station. Since then, we have produced 21 swans that have either been released to the wild or have been paired with mates and moved to other conservation facilities to continue with the breeding program. The trumpeter swans can now be seen all over the state and have been removed from the endangered species list.

They are still protected as a threatened species and by the Migratory Bird Act. They are not to be confused with the mute swan, an invasive species from Europe that displaces native trumpeter swans. Mute swans are much smaller and have a yellow beak, while the larger trumpeters beaks are all black.