Early indicators suggest successful Bewick's Swan breeding season

03/09/2018

High cygnet numbers suggest that Bewick's Swan has enjoyed a bumper breeding season in Russia. In total, 24 cygnets and 10 family parties were recorded by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) during an annual trip to the Russian Arctic, where the birds nest in remote tundra. This news is potentially a positive development for the Critically Endangered species, after just one cygnet was recorded during last year’s expedition, on the back of a dire breeding season.

This year, the team tagged 60 Bewick's Swans, 10 of which had been ringed before. The WWT makes the 3,218-km trip every year in order to ring the swans, many of which winter on British soil. These populations, west of the Taimyr Peninsula, migrate via the White Sea, Baltic Sea and the Elbe estuary to wintering grounds in Denmark and The Netherlands, as well as Britain.

WWT Conservation Scientist Kane Brides was delighted with the trip's findings, commenting: "This is a definite indication of a better breeding season than last year, when spring was late and the birds didn't have as much of a window to breed. Thankfully the weather was OK this year, allowing the swans to get on. In the next four weeks the Bewick's will begin leaving the Arctic to begin their epic journey through Europe. We hope this snapshot means there will be more cygnets in tow with their families."

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Oldest living British Bewick's Swan returns

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.

For more information on Croupier, visit WWT’s swan expert Julia Newth’s blog here.

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Rare Bewick's swan numbers show 'alarming crash'

The UK's smallest and rarest swan has suffered an "alarming crash in numbers", the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust has said.

The Slimbridge-based charity said more than a third of Bewick's swans have disappeared since 1995, when the total population peaked at 29,000.

The latest figures show that, by 2010, there were just 18,000 left.

Scientists believe illegal hunting, power lines and lead poisoning have contributed to the drop in numbers.

The charity said it feared the next census, due this winter, would reveal a "further, more worrying decline" in population.

In some winters, the Ouse Washes spanning Norfolk and Cambridgeshire receives 33% of the northwest European Bewick's swan population.

Head of UK waterbird conservation Eileen Rees said swans were not producing enough offspring to replace the ones that have died over the year.

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Bewick’s swans migrate but leave cygnet behind

February 2014: A Bewick’s swan cygnet appears to have abandoned by his parents at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire. Yesterday WWT researcher Julia Newth, who recognises the hundreds of swans in the flock by their individual face markings, saw that one family had acquired an additional youngster.

The lone cygnet has latched onto Slimbridge regulars Wooton and Stinchcombe and their four cygnets, but is spending much of its time calling in the hope of being reunited with its own parents.

Bewick’s swans migrate in large family groups and due to recent mild weather all but 10 of the Slimbridge flock have departed already.

Julia Newth said: “Occasionally, cygnets become separated from their parents during migration when there is perhaps bad weather, but it is rather more unusual to see such a separation before the journey has begun.

“We’re all waiting to see whether the parents return. If they don’t, and the cygnet leaves with its adopted family, we will call on our extensive network of swan researchers along the 2,500 mile journey to Russia to keep an eye out for them and check whether the lone cygnet manages to stay with them.”

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