7 Central; Bring back the swans

A century ago this was a common sight. The Trumpeter Swan gracing the Wisconsin wet money. About a hundred years ago. The trumpeter Swans disappeared killed off by hunters and he was considered a delicacy. Their feathers adorned the hands of unmentionable Victorian women. Driven off and hunted out, The Trumpeter Swan vanished from its native terrain. But now an effort by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources brings new hope for the Swans return. The campaign begins in Milwaukee an urban landscape far from the wetlands where Swans once made their home. Welcome back. ? Packed in these suitcases are 60 Trumpeter Swan eggs. Imported eggs within a few weeks of hatching. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources biologists must keep the eggs warm or they won't become swans. This one's running a little cold they gotta go get a- a fresh batch of hot water. So I'm gonna run right in.

All the way back, coming back from Alaska, we were very concerned about one particular suitcase. That- was no warmer than the mid 80s. 99.5 [Unintelligible] Low 90's OK. The eggs were found two days ago in the marshy Minto flats a wildlife preserve in northern Alaska. One place where trumpeter Swans still make their nests and raise their young. DNR Swan recovery director Sumner Madison collected these eggs in Alaska. There he encountered his first problem. There's a lot of flooding up in the Mento Flats area in Alaska so there were several nests that had bad eggs so we kept having to go out further and further to find nests with eggs- good eggs. The good eggs represent new hope for the trumpeter Swans return. If all the eggs hatch 40 baby swans will stay in Wisconsin. The rest will be delivered to

Michigan's recovery program. [Backround talking and music] Now far from their Alaskan home, the eggs are next driven to incubators at the Milwaukee Zoo. I think we might have to go to contingency plan here, 'cuz these are getting awful tight. I was really nervous handling those eggs. Zoo biologist at DBOLD? is in charge of the hatching. So far so good. All the eggs are in good shape. [Silence] [Silence]

[Silence] [Background noise] [bird noises] She's playing the alarm call. She's playing the alarm call, that's probably a good thing seeing the car go past and playing the alarm call. Get 'em used to the idea that cars driving passed aren't Something to investigate too closely. Becky Abel supervisor is University of Wisconsin wildlife ecologist Stan Temple. Some of the broods have been attacked by raccoons while they were out there at the marsh. I've had a chance to learn the ropes you might say. They've been uh- buzzed by raptors, so they've learned to be cautious about Raptors Temple believes this kind of training is sort of Outward Bound experience for Swans

will give these birds an advantage over the control group still at the zoo. We know for example that holding the birds in captivity for two years buys them some survival time. During those first two years they live a pampered life in which they're not subject to all the rigors of the wild. But once they're abruptly placed out in the wild at three years of age, there perhaps could be some question about how well suited they really are for survival. On the other hand with the imprinted birds they're going out in the wild at an age when they are psychologically and physiologically primed for learning about how to survive in the wild. So what we're trying to do during these crucial stages in these young birds lives is to recreate as faithfully as we can. Many of the events that would normally be taking place if Mom was uh- flesh and feathers rather than styrofoam. It's now mid summer and the control group swans have been moved from the zoo to their new

home. The Oak Hill Correctional Institution, a prison farm near Madison. It's the first time zoo biologist Ed Debold? has seen the Swans at their new shelter. I'm happy I'm very happy I think this is wonderful. Oak Hill is the newest of five sites that house of the state's captive swan population. Wonderful. The site's great. Really is very nice The swans are kept in cages built by the Oak Hill inmates who call the Swans, not surprisingly jailbirds. DNR project director Sumner Madison says the swans, protected from predators, are doing well so far. We feel that that we'll be releasing them at an age when they can have a much better chance of surviving in the wild. The key seems to be that if we can get enough birds out there, uh that are two years, three years of age we'll have a very good chance of being successful. Madison says only time will tell whether the protected group here in the south or the

wild group up north will eventually produce the most free flying swan. That's what it's all about that's the most exciting part of this program. I think getting birds that age when they can take flight whether it's through this kind of technique or the technique that Becky is following. Oak Hill inmates and DNR site manager Rick Lien keep constant vigil over the Swans to keep them from becoming an expensive meal. If they were out in the wild they could escape from the predators by swimming out in the water. Here we got 'em penned into a small area so that any predator getting in would be able to catch 'em fairly easy. But predators aren't Lien's only concern. This site was chosen after samples were taken for lead shot from hunters gun's. Swans eat gravel pellets from

lake bottoms to help digest their food, but sometimes they accidentally swallowed lead shot along with the grit. Submerged lead shot is deadly. A single pellet can kill an adult swan. Lien's samples revealed no pellets, but only a week after the Swans arrived a big problem surfaced. One of the inmates while walking back from his returning from working on the fence happened to step in some mud, Scraped his shoe off and saw 20 or 30 pellets in the mud. And told me about what he'd found. So we more or less have poison pellets out there for the birds. The recent drought has made the problem worse. Low water levels make the lead shot easier to reach. Lien can only fence off the area and hope the pellets stay contained. Even if we can protect the birds here from lead shot, they're going to encounter it once they're

released probably. Throughout the country. Wetlands are full of deadly lead shot. Last year Minnesota's Swan recovery program lost over a dozen birds to lead poisoning and wetlands along the Mississippi. Lead shot will be the Swans biggest manmade menace. It's now late summer and the captive Oak Hill swans are given checkups, bent their wing feathers are clipped to prevent them from flying away. Thirty one. 31 hundred. Soon they'll be released from their pens into the fenced off lake. [unintelligible] We'll know these efforts have been worthwhile. The wild swan is back. We will proclaim it part of our heritage and natural landscape has returned to the beautiful state of Wisconsin.

A milestone has now been met to protect its swans are led into the lake in a splashy press release attended by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Look at 'em. Oh my. This is really a pretty significant day because it is their first step towards freedom. But freedom to fly is still far away. Oak Hill swans are to remain wing clipped and under constant vigil for the next two years. Autumn has arrived as well at Crex Meadow, but there, the Swans have come down with avian pox a common contagious disease among birds like chicken pox among children. [Bird noises] Avian pox can spread to commercial turkey and chicken flocks. So the outbreak must be contained. For the first time, the Wild Swans are penned until the epidemic

is past. Then they're released again to the autumn wild. [Bird noises] [Bird noises] They historically migrated down the Mississippi flyway. Ideally we'd like to have them migrate the same way. Wildlife biologist Becky Abel worries that her orphaned Alaskan Swans may not know where to go. Even though migration is instinctive to a certain extent. It is also learned by following other birds and there aren't any other swans to teach them the migration route. They feel the urge to migrate and they don't really know where to go. We don't know where they're gonna go. Then somehow on instinct they start south, searching for food and open water.

But over half of the nation's wetlands have been drained and developed. The wild Swans have few safe shelters. [silence] [silence] Soon the other Swans became sick. A hasty

diagnosis revealed lead shot poisoning and the birds were flown to the Raptor Center in St. Paul Minnesota. You can see the gizzard outline is right here and the lead shot stands out as a fairly bright white spots. I think we counted uh 14 shot on this particular X-ray. Dr. Laura Deggarness treated the swans at the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center for sick and injured birds. We did a procedure which basically involves pumping their stomach and after we did that we knew guaranteed that we had removed all the shot especially after I took this last X-ray. And let's see how well the shot show up on the other x rays and it's totally gone in this one so at that point we've gotten all the solid lead out. That's the easy part. It's really. Nice. Blood is stored in the bones and soft tissues. That's the part that takes up to 8 weeks approximately and that's what we're doing right now. Is treating the bird with intravenous drugs to remove the lead. It's still too early to say

exactly what's going to happen with the Swans. I think they'll probably be ok. We're hoping they are otherwise all the work we're doing here is wasted. [Bird noises] For some of swans, her work is wasted. Four die within a few days. The remaining nine need lengthy treatment for lead poisoning. Deggarness has hopes the long term effects won't ruin the entire effort. We haven't been able to follow up on birds that have been treated for lead poisoning long enough to know if two or three years down the road they will be capable of reproduction. You know this the signal is at least two probably four years away from reproduction. But Deggarness worries most about a more immediate problem. The drought continues to lower water levels and expose more lead shot. If the drought continues and the problems of lead poisoning continues, especially affecting the birds- the breeding age birds- of the

reproductively active birds can't be terribly optimistic because that's hitting a lot of the very important, valuable birds. Pray for rain. And back at the now empty Oak Hill site, Rick Lien and inmate Kent Brunnet are left to wonder how the lead shot killed a third of the birds. This spot birds obviously had to have picked up the stuff that caused the downfall of the The site had to be in these open areas, which you can see the remains of they had to pick it up there because that's the only place those birds were since November when the water froze over. over in the area for keeping the spots open. I got -uh pretty well attached to them uhh It was really disappointing for me to you know have some of them die and get sick on me me and then die It is kinda seems funny you're seeing these empty cages you know and there's nothing in 'em We should have uh these birds back here again.

So you know the we could be taking care of them. but the birds can't come back here until until the lead shot is gone and there's no foolproof way to locate all of the lead pellets. You can take a thousand samples. And only prove that you haven't found lead in those samples. The spots where there are lead. Could be two inches away from where you sampled. [Silence] The lead shot lesson has been painful but Site manager Rick Lien tries to stay focused on the future. But you have to look on it as at least there were still nine birds alive umm The-the program wasn't dealt a death blow and uhh

there's still going to be swans in the future of Wisconsin. Three weeks later the nine recovering swans are returned to Wisconsin. It's the third time since they arrived first as eggs that the birds become cargo at the Milwaukee airport. Since the Oak Hill site is contaminated with lead, the DNR decides to move the birds to another captive Swan location. The pond near the General Electric plant in suburban Milwaukee. We haven't had a migration problem here at this point.