Table Of Content

Paul Johnsgard S wans: Their Biology and Natural History The seven species of swans of the world are an easily and universally recognized group of waterfowl, which have historically played important roles in the folklore, myths and legends in many of the world’s cultures. Among the largest of all flying birds, they have also almost universally been used as symbols of royalty, grace and beauty, and largely for these reasons swans have only rarely been considered acceptable as targets for sport hunting. Swans occur on all the continents except Africa, although most species are associated with the temperate and arctic zones of North America and Eurasia. Among birds, swans are relatively long-lived species, and are also among the most strongly monogamous, having prolonged pair and family bonds that strongly influence their flocking and social behavior, and contribute to the overall high degree of human interest in them. This volume of 48,000 words describes their distributions, ecology, social behavior, and breeding biology. Included are nine distribution maps, 19 drawings, and 23 photographs by the author. There is a bibliography of nearly 700 references. Zea Books Lincoln, Nebraska E-book ISBN 978-1-60962-082-0 swans: their biology and natural history Whistling swan adult S wans: Their Biology and Natural History Paul A. Johnsgard School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska: 2016 Abstract The seven species of swans of the world are an easily and universally recognized group of waterfowl, which have historically played important roles in the folklore, myths and legends in many of the world’s cultures. Among the largest of all flying birds, they have also almost universally been used as symbols of royalty, grace and beauty, and largely for these reasons swans have only rarely been considered acceptable as targets for sport hunting. Swans occur on all the continents except Africa, although most species are associated with the temperate and arctic zones of North America and Eurasia. Among birds, swans are relatively long-lived species, and are also among the most strongly monogamous, having prolonged pair and family bonds that strongly influence their flocking and social behavior, and contribute to the overall high degree of human interest in them. This volume of 48,000 words describes their distributions, ecology, social behavior, and breeding biology. Included are nine distribution maps, 19 drawings, and 23 photographs by the author. There is a bibliography of nearly 700 references. Text and illustrations copyright © 2016 Paul A. Johnsgard. ISBN 978-1-60962-081-3 paperback ISBN 978-1-60962-082-0 e-book Composed in Adobe Garamond types by Paul Royster. Zea E-Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Electronic (pdf) edition available online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/ Print edition available from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/unllib UNL does not discriminate based upon any protected status. Please see go.unl.edu/nondiscrimination Contents List of Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 List of Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 I. Introduction to the Swans of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 II. Species Accounts Mute Swan Cygnus olor (Gmelin) 1789 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Black Swan Cygnus atratus (Latham) 1790 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Black-necked Swan Cygnus melancoryphus (Molina) 1792 . . . . . . . . 38 Trumpeter Swan Cygnus buccinator (Richardson) 1758 . . . . . . . . . 43 Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus (Linnaeus) 1758 . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Tundra Swan (Whistling Swan) Cygnus c. columbianus (Ord) 1815 . . . . 62 Tundra Swan (Bewick’s Swan) Cygnus columbianus bewickii Yarrell 1830 . . 74 Coscoroba Swan Coscoroba coscoroba (Molina) 1782 . . . . . . . . . . 79 III. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5 Whooper swan, adult wing-flapping Maps Map 1. Eurasian distribution of the mute swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Map 2. North American distribution of the mute swan . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Map 3. Australia and New Zealand distributions of the black swan . . . . . . . 34 Map 4. Distribution of the black-necked swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Map 5. Distribution of the trumpeter swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Map 6. Distribution of the whooper swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Map 7. Distribution of the North American (whistling) race of the tundra swan . . 63 Map 8. Distribution of the Eurasian (Bewick’s race) of the tundra swan. . . . . . 75 Map 9. Distribution of the coscoroba swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Figures Whistling swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Whooper swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Trumpeter swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Tundra swan tracheal anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 1. Mute and black swan behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. Black and black-necked swan behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3. Trumpeter and whooper swan behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4. Whooper, whistling, Bewick’s and coscoroba swan behavior . . . . . . . . . 19 5. Mute swan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 6. Black swan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 7. Black-necked swan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 8. Trumpeter swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 9. Trumpeter swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 10. Whooper swan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 11. Whooper swan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 12. Whistling (tundra) swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 13. Whistling (tundra) swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 14. Coscoroba swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 7 Trumpeter swan, adult standing