460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 196 



Cygnets must have parents, so the hunters, both market and sport, 

 were requested not to shoot adult swans, and, strangely, they com- 

 plied. This may have been the help needed to preserve the species. 



Since establislunent of Red Rock Lakes Refuge in 1935, the 

 trumpeter has had the benefits of all applicable wildlife management 

 teclmiques. Three of the oldest teclmiques have had a major part in 

 increasing and spreading the birds over a much larger range. These 

 are provision of breeding and feeding areas, protection, and trapping 

 and transplanting. In the course of these activities, the trumpeter 

 became a much-studied bird, and a great deal has been learned about 

 him. Much more remains to be learned, some of it by scientific studies 

 and some in the manner of the old-fashioned naturalist, by just 

 observing. 



The best way to discuss some of these findings, as well as the story 

 of the trumpeter and his habitat and management, is to follow through 

 an annual cycle. 



Swan country is high; the home triangle is 5,000 and more feet 

 above sea' level. Red Rock Lakes Refuge lies in the eastern end of 

 Centennial Valley, Mont., just west of Yellowstone Park. Here the 

 birds have large marshes for breeding and spring- fed lakes with year- 

 round open water for wintering. Conditions are somewhat different 

 in Idaho's Island Park country and in Yellowstone National Park, 

 where swans are also found. Here they nest in small mountain lakes 

 scattered throughout the rolling timbered country ; the shallow lakes 

 are good for both swan and moose. Trumpeters winter primarily on 

 the open waters of Henry's Fork of the Snake River, and its larger 

 spring-fed tributaries. A few birds have been successfully trans- 

 planted to the National Elk Refuge near Jackson Hole, Wyo. Their 

 habits here are much the same, breeding on marshy lakes and winter- 

 ing on the open water of the main stem of the Snake River. 



Trumpeters start pairing off in February, and late in the month 

 they spend most of their time on snow-covered meadows. Trumpeting 

 increases as the weather becomes warmer, and by mid-March court- 

 ship reaches a peak. Shortly after the ice goes out, usually in mid- 

 May, the swans prepare to nest. 



Trumpeters are monogamous and probably mate for life, pairing 

 off when 3 years old and breeding at 5 or more. Alvin ISIisseldine, 

 formerly the Idaho State Conservation Officer at Island Park, says he 

 could almost always tell when a trumpeter had been killed. The sur- 

 viving mate flew up and down the river for days calling constantly, 

 and would sometimes sit down in a field and starve to death. 



Nests are huge structures constructed of cattails or other marsh veg- 

 etation, often 4 to 5 feet across. Muskrat houses frequently serve as a 

 base for the nest. Lacking these, a beaver lodge or any other elevation 



