25/12/2017
The oldest living member of a
Gloucestershire swan dynasty has returned from the Russian Arctic to winter at
Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).
Croupier, the 26-year-old leader
of one of the biggest Bewick's
Swan families ever studied at WWT's famous Swan Lake at Slimbridge,
arrived on Wednesday to the excitement of researchers.
The ‘cobfather’ was sadly minus
its long-term partner, Dealer, who is mother to 29 cygnets that they have
brought back together over the years. Researchers hope that Dealer has become
separated from its mate on the long migration and is still out there somewhere,
but as Bewick’s Swan numbers have plummeted in the last two decades, they fear
the worst.
Croupier’s grandfather Nijinsky
began wintering at Slimbridge in 1969. Its mother Casino, at 27, was one of
WWT’s longest living wild swans, safely escorting 34 cygnets on the 2,500-mile
journey from Russia to Slimbridge during her lifetime.
WWT’s swan research assistant
Steve Heaven said: “Families tend to be the dominant groups on our Swan Lake
and Croupier is from one of the oldest dynasties, which have ruled Slimbridge
since the sixties.
“We can trace the legacy of these
powerful swan families as we’ve been studying them closely for decades and
drawing up family trees, using their distinctive bill patterns to identify each
member. Our long-term study of the Bewick’s Swans at Slimbridge has shed light
on their ecological needs, important for survival. This information is crucial
for helping us to understand why the population has been struggling.”
As Croupier demonstrates, swans
live a long life but they don’t produce many young. Bewick’s Swans lay around
five eggs each year on their Arctic breeding grounds, but usually only one or
two cygnets make it to their wintering sites in Western Europe. The stakes are
high with Bewick’s Swans in decline in Europe and the WWT's
recent research has shown that their survival rates have
reduced. However, it’s a good bet that Croupier’s faithful family will return
to Slimbridge for many years to come.
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