COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Wildlife Council voted to remove the trumpeter swan from the state's threatened species list after a 28-year effort by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to restore a population of the birds in the state.
Ohio's trumpeter swan population stands at nearly 900 with swans nesting in 26 different counties.
Trumpeter swan populations experienced severe declines throughout North America in the 1700s and 1800s because of unregulated harvest and wetland habitat loss. They were rooted out from Ohio as early as the 1700s.
“Ohio’s professional wildlife biologists dedicated themselves to growing the trumpeter swan population over nearly three decades, and their perseverance has paid off,” said Gov. Mike DeWine. “In addition to monitoring the growth of the trumpeter swan population, a great deal of work also went into creating and restoring wetland habitat needed for generations of trumpeters to nest and thrive.”
According to a release from ODNR, the agency began a trumpeter swan reintroduction program in 1996 by collecting swan eggs from an established population at the Minto Flats State Game Refuge in central Alaska. The eggs were placed in incubators and flown to Ohio, where the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and The Wilds of the Columbus Zoo partnered to help care for the eggs, raise the young trumpeters and release them in appropriate habitats.
Wetland complexes on state wildlife areas such as Funk Bottoms, Killdeer Plains, Magee Marsh and Mosquito Creek provided the critical habitat Ohio’s trumpeters needed.
The Division of Wildlife's monitoring and management efforts to increase the swan's population and their habitats are ongoing.
To see a full list of Ohio's endangered and threatened species, click here.
