The Swan Research Program (SRP) is privileged to have the one of the finest swan collections in the world.  This collection is kept for research purposes, supplementing the research we conduct on wild swans.  The major part of this captive collection is swimming freely on the lakes of Airlie Center, a renowned dedicated conference center, near Warrenton, Virginia and on other properties nearby.  These are cripples rescued from the wild, swans collected for research purposes, or swans that were hatched here.

The collection of captive swans has existed under Dr. William J. L. Sladen's supervision since 1969.  Starting at the Baltimore Zoo, it moved in the early 1970s to the late Willard Rockwell, Jr.'s Alanconnie Sanctuary at Nemacolin, Farmington, Pennsylvania.  Swans were also kept at Dr. Hafstad's Willow Point and Sladen's Lake Shore Sanctuaries in Maryland.  Later, the Horsehead Wetlands Center of the Wildfowl Trust of North America (WTNA) displayed a pair each of Whoopers and Trumpeters.  In 1987 the collection was transferred to Airlie Center where they remain headquartered today.

The collection is unique. Although mostly held in Virginia, there are additional swans in Columbia, Maryland.  The swan collection currently holds:

• Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus),
• Trumpeter Swans  (Cygnus buccinator),
• Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus),
• Trumpling Swans (hybrid Trumpeter X Whistling*),  
• Trumpetling Swans (hybrid Trumpeter X Trumpling),
• Mute Swans (Cygnus olor),
• Mumpling Swans (hybrid Mute X Trumpling) and
• one Blute Swan (hybrid Black X Mute) 

To our knowledge, no other collection can boast 8 different taxa of swans that are swimming freely (no fences) on lakes or ponds in good habitat.

* Whistling Swan was an earlier common name for the Tundra Swan.

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