Trumpets in the West^ 



By William B. Morse 



Field Representative 

 Wildlife Management Institute 



[With 3 plates] 



One of the most difficult problems in wildlife management is to 

 protect and save a vanishing bird species. Many conservationists and 

 agencies are participating in heroic efforts to safeguard the whooping 

 crane, and that issue is still in doubt. There is another bird, once 

 almost as near extinction, that has been saved, increased, and spread 

 in the last 23 years by the use of routine but concentrated wildlife 

 management techniques. This is the trumpeter swan, largest and most 

 magnificent of the wildfowl in the West- 

 Saving the trumpeter swan took no magic, only hard work, money, 

 luck, and the cooperation of the trumpeter himself. The techniques 

 used were those applied routinely to many other birds. If a species 

 monument exists to game management, it could be appropriately sym- 

 bolized by the trumpeter swan. 



The year 1958 marked the first successful reproduction of trans- 

 planted trumpeters on two areas far from their existing population 

 center. Four cygnets were hatched and reared on the Malheur Na- 

 tional Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. Six cygnets were 

 reared at Ruby Lake National Refuge in east-central Nevada. This 

 was a special birthday present for the Malheur Refuge. The 50th 

 anniversary of the founding of the refuge by President Theodore 

 Roosevelt was celebrated by a dedication ceremony on October 25, 

 1958. The ceremony was held adjacent to Sod House Spring, and 

 eight trumpeters attended, with ringside seats on the spring pond. 

 Their talk was music to the ears of Dr. Ira N. Gabrielsen and other 

 distinguished conservationists who participated in the brief 

 ceremonies. 



If all goes well, the trumpeters should increase and spread. It is 

 not likely that they will ever again become abundant, but all nature 

 lovers will be able to hear what is to me the most beautiful sound in 



^ Reprinted by permission from American Forests, vol. 65, No. 12, December 1959. 



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