Mute Swan population to be killed!!!! Has anyone else heard this?

oh no,seen em all. I know what you mean. All they do is buy them, or actually take orders for them and have the actual breeders drop ship them to their customers, and as a result usually triple or quadruple the price on the customer and they never even see the birds at the hatchery.
 
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I wonder if I could go catch me a pair
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I don't think good idea murdering such huge beautiful birds as mute swans.

Meats of mute swans are too tough and might taste not good. I tried the meat of black swan, but it turned too tough.

To me these mute swans are interesting birds, when parent swans teach their juveniles to fly, a sight of white swans and brown swans (juv) are interesting sight

I do not support the killing of mute swans.

Clinton.
 
How about a nice dose of reality on the subject? Mute swans are an introduced species and are listed as an invasive species in many states - which means it is illegal to let them loose. They are from Eurasia, and they compete with many native bird species, including the tundra swans.

In the early 1990s, a molting flock of between 600 to 1,000 mute swans utilized a beach area, Barren Island (off of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge), as a loafing site. This same site was the last remaining nesting site for black skimmers (Rynchops niger) and the last natural nesting site for least terns (Sterna antilarum) in Maryland. The mute swan activity crushed eggs and young of birds nesting in the beach colony, which led to the black skimmers and least terns abandoning this area for three nesting seasons (Maryland DNR files).

Or what about this little issue?

Mute swans compete with native, wintering tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) for shelter and food to a lesser extent than shelter. Tundra swans lose mass during the winter and depart from the wintering grounds at their lowest mass (Bortner 1985, Limpert et al. 1987). Harassment by mute swans may cause tundra swans to lose mass more rapidly, which could affect subsequent reproduction. Inter-specific aggression during nesting season has been documented in the Chesapeake Bay between Canada geese and mallard and black ducks.

And what about the impact on plant species, which many people don't notice because they tend not to be fuzzy and cute?

Of primary concern to Chesapeake Bay ecologists is the rate of mute swan population growth in the Chesapeake Bay, its presence year-round and its preference for feeding on SAV. Certain SAV species, such as wild celery (Vallisneria americana), are especially vulnerable because their reproduction and growth are timed to avoid the heavy grazing of migratory waterfowl. Wild celery requires its reproduction process to be protected from grazing while its seeds are maturing. If consumed before seeds are mature, it will not reproduce and will waste living energy in this process. A large, resident mute swan population feeding on SAV all year could jeopardize the ability of SAV to recover from winter waterfowl grazing and make it less available for waterfowl the following winter. Declines in SAV abundance appear to correlate with declines in local black duck (Anas rubripes) abundance (Krementz 1991). Population trends suggest that habitat degradation in Chesapeake Bay, especially loss of SAV, may be the principal cause of the decline of the Bay's canvasback (Aythya valisineria) population (Haramis 1991). Furthermore, the loss of SAV over the past several decades has prompted the near abandonment of Bay waters by redheads (Aythya americana), leaving only a remnant population today (Haramis 1991).

In closed waterways in Europe, mute swans have been documented as removing entire species of SAV (Gillham 1956, Jennings et al. 1961, Mathaisson 1973, Chairman 1977, Neirheus and Van Ireland 1978, Scott and Birkhead 1983). In a recent Rhode Island exclosure study, for example, findings indicated that mute swans overgraze SAV when water is shallow (0.5 m), reducing SAV biomass by 92 to 95% (Allin and Husband 2000). The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement includes a commitment to restoring 114,000 acres of SAV; however, restoration efforts, particularly in the mid-Bay where SAV decline is most severe, are frequently obstructed by feeding mute swans.
 

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