For more than 18 years the Swan Research Program (SRP) has been advocating control of the alien Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) population in Virginia.  Feral Mutes (or breeding pairs in collections) have been captured, sexed, processed, pinioned and then redistributed as same-sex (male with male; female with female) partners onto inland ponds.  In 12 years of this program, centered at Airlie Center in Warrenton Virginia, SRP has handled over 262 Mutes.  None have bred while 114 have died from natural causes, primarily predation.  If this program had not been approved by VDGIF, SRP conservatively estimates that the mutes removed from the breeding population would have increased to over 1000 feral breeding Mute Swans in our area.  For over three years SRP had not been permitted to continue this program due to the status of the Mute Swan as a protected bird under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  Now that this protection has been revoked.  Concurrent with Virginia’s listing of the Mute Swan as a nuisance species, SRP is renewing this program, in an attempt to evaluate same-sex pairing as a means of humanely controlling this invasive waterfowl.

The portion of the 2002 mid-summer Mute Swan survey (survey area included all or part of Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Loudoun, Page, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren Counties) that SRP flew revealed nearly 200 Mute Swans within a 32-mile radius of Warrenton Virginia. Over 90% of these birds were feral.  These results indicate that the feral Mute Swan population has continued to expand its range westward into Virginia’s Northern Piedmont

The project’s goal is to revive our technique of Mute Swan Control by placing same-sex non-breeding pairs on inland ponds and evaluate this technique as a management tool to control Mute Swans.  The project’s ultimate goal is the elimination of feral Mute Swans from Virginia without a cull.  Non-breeding pairs will not be placed in locations where the swans have access to estuaries, main tributaries, or public waterways.

Swans are considered charismatic megafauna and are greatly appreciated by the public. Kellert (1980) listed the swan, with the robin and butterfly, as the third most popular animal in America.  From an early age, many people are introduced to swans through literature and society.  Even a US Postal Service Love Stamp features Mutes in courtship display.  By educating the public as to the ecological impacts of exponential population growth and placing same-sex, non-breeding Mutes on privately-owned inland ponds, this program offers landowners a chance to care for and enjoy swans, and help to curb the rapidly expanding population while preventing the birds from being killed as part of a management effort. The birds live out their lives without breeding and our cooperators often modify their habitat to the benefit of all wetland species.

Tundra Swan Migration

Native Swan Hybridization and Speciation

Mute Swan Proliferation Control

Trumpeter Swan Restoration