Ask the Swan Specialist

Re: Alaskan Trumpet Swans: Will they migrate without the male swan?
By:The Regal Swan
Date: 3 September 2014

Hi Shirley:

We’re sorry to hear about the male parent. However, animals and birds grieve differently than humans. They will not stop eating, bathing, mating or flying because something happened to their mate. To do so, not only sacrifices their health, but also their family’s and the entire herd/flock. Therefore, the mother swan and the cygnets should begin the migratory journey shortly. If they do not, then they risk a severe winter climate that could be detrimental to all. A frozen pond can mean a predator could access them on the ice, they could freeze, starve, drown from not being able to climb onto the ice or die from stress related illness or dehydration. So, you should see them leave in the very near future.

The swans may be going to another pond for a different or more plentiful food source. There may be something different about the present pond such as a change in vegetation or other habitat change, presence of predators (domestic or wild), etc. This short flight or walk across the pond could also be a means to remove the young cygnets from the more suitable nesting habitat and to teach them that they must move on before the next breeding season. Please let us know if they do migrate.

On another note, if there is a male cygnet, there is a possibility that it will return with its mother and mate with her in the next couple of years. They may bond as well as the other two cygnets, so they could very possibly all return to the same lake for many years, raising two separate families on your pond now that the dynamics have changed without the male parent. The Regal Swan

Messages In This Thread

Alaskan Trumpet Swans: Will they migrate without the male swan? -- Shirley -- 2 September 2014
Re: Alaskan Trumpet Swans: Will they migrate without the male swan? -- The Regal Swan -- 3 September 2014