08-13-2003, 04:00 AM
Just thought I'd add this. The main problem is accidental killing of Trumpeter Swans while hunting Tundra Swans. This is from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report 28Jan2003.
I shot mine last year at the Bear River Refuge, unit 4.
The population of trumpeter swans in North America has grown from less than 4,000 birds in 1968 to nearly 24,000 birds in 2000. This represents an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent. The Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans, which includes the tri-state birds, increased from approximately 800 birds in 1968 to more than 3,600 in 2000.
The Service was petitioned to list the tri-state flock in August 2000. In October 2000, the petitioners filed suit to halt a legal tundra swan hunt in Utah, Montana and Nevada, arguing that the hunt jeopardized trumpeter swan populations in the area because of the difficulty of distinguishing between the two species under field conditions.
The Service has modified the limited take and restricted hunting seasons on tundra swans in those areas to give added protection to trumpeters. Swan harvests in Utah and Nevada continue to be monitored, with the hunting season immediately closed if the states’ limited quota of trumpeter swans is reached.
The Service allowed these hunts to continue after evaluating population and harvest data during a five-year experimental swan hunt between 1995 and 1999. Despite the killing of approximately 38 trumpeter swans mistaken by hunters for tundra swans over the five-year period, the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans grew by an average of six percent per year during that period, suggesting that the limited hunt did not have a significant impact on the population.
[crazy]Leaky
I shot mine last year at the Bear River Refuge, unit 4.
The population of trumpeter swans in North America has grown from less than 4,000 birds in 1968 to nearly 24,000 birds in 2000. This represents an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent. The Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans, which includes the tri-state birds, increased from approximately 800 birds in 1968 to more than 3,600 in 2000.
The Service was petitioned to list the tri-state flock in August 2000. In October 2000, the petitioners filed suit to halt a legal tundra swan hunt in Utah, Montana and Nevada, arguing that the hunt jeopardized trumpeter swan populations in the area because of the difficulty of distinguishing between the two species under field conditions.
The Service has modified the limited take and restricted hunting seasons on tundra swans in those areas to give added protection to trumpeters. Swan harvests in Utah and Nevada continue to be monitored, with the hunting season immediately closed if the states’ limited quota of trumpeter swans is reached.
The Service allowed these hunts to continue after evaluating population and harvest data during a five-year experimental swan hunt between 1995 and 1999. Despite the killing of approximately 38 trumpeter swans mistaken by hunters for tundra swans over the five-year period, the Rocky Mountain population of trumpeter swans grew by an average of six percent per year during that period, suggesting that the limited hunt did not have a significant impact on the population.
[crazy]Leaky