TRUMPETER SWAN (Olor buccinator) 



One of the most graceful and picturesque of all birds, the trumpeter 

 swan once bred from Alaska to Wyoming and eastward to Missouri and 

 Indiana. Commercial demand for swan feathers during the last century 

 drastically reduced the number of trumpeters, however, and by the early 

 1930's fewer than seventy birds bred in the wild. The preservation of habitat 

 and the protection of swans in Yellowstone, in neighboring Red Rock Lakes 

 National Wildlife Refuge, and later in Grand Teton helped preserve the 

 species. Specialized in its breeding habitat requirements, the trumpeter 

 swan needs shallow, quiet, fresh-water environments with a relatively 

 stable level and marshy edges. In this environment the trumpeter swan 

 builds a mounded nest of bulrushes, sedges, or cattails and raises a brood 

 of up to half a dozen cygnets. The largest of the swans, the trumpeter 

 may achieve a length of 6.S inches and a wing-spread of six to nine feet. 

 Several pairs of these elegant swans, which mate for life, breed in suitable 

 habitats in both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. 



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