They came from Talbot County and they just never really did fit in around here. They made messes, they hogged the food, they got pushy with the natives.
That’s why the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, along with almost every environmental group including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Maryland Ornithological Society, advocates killing more Mute Swans.
Mute Swan by Alex Layzell
Animal rights group like the Humane Society of the United States and PETA disagree.
In a report sure to fuel more disagreement, Maryland’s Mute Swan Task Force today is recommending that efforts continue to reduce the Chesapeake Bay’s population of the large and beautiful but non-native birds.
Because of control efforts, there are far fewer of the swans in the region now than there were just a few years ago. Only about 500 remain out of a population that had reached nearly 4,000 in the 1990s.
“While the swans may be beautiful, they continue to pose a serious threat to the Chesapeake Bay and it’s native wildlife, and non-lethal controls have proven insufficient for reducing the population,” says DNR Secretary John Griffin.
John Knight, the biologist who coordinated the study, says, “There is a solid body of scientific literature demonstrating that this species – like the nutria, a marsh rodent from South America – causes harm to native species and the Chesapeake ecosystem.”
Wayne Bell of the Ornithological Society agrees: “Maryland has achieved an unparalled 80 percent reduction in the population of this invasive species, so to stop now would have made little sense.”
At the nearby Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, there are not many of the big birds to be seen today. Manager Jonathan Priday says the refuge is a transient point for the birds and their numbers vary, sometimes as many as 50, sometimes none. He estimates there are two to five pairs of Mute Swans around the island now.
Not to be confused with the much-prized Tundra Swans, which are nesting now in Canada, mute swans are native to Europe and Asia.
Maryland’s population of mute swans began when five of the birds escaped from captivity in Talbot County 1962.
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