Hi Everyone,
This topic has not been circulated in a while, so I expect it will be of interest to many. I drafted the following proposal in late 2010 and it was accepted at the MD/DCRC annual meeting in 2011 as the committee's position on Trumpeter Swans in Maryland.
Status of the Trumpeter Swan in Maryland
Questions of origin present significant challenges to bird record committees, and the status of the Trumpeter Swan in the eastern U.S. is an especially difficult example. Breeding programs have been releasing Trumpeter Swans since the late 1980s and early 1990s, but official labels of population
status have historically been elusive. As Trumpeter Swans began appearing in Maryland with increasing frequency, questions about their status and "countability" have often been raised. Most Trumpeter Swans are not tagged or banded, which means few individuals can be traced back to a
specific population. However, the majority of involved states and provinces, particularly in the Great Lakes region, now consider their populations established. These include Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario, Wisconsin, and Iowa. At the time of this writing, only New York and Ohio have yet to accept
their populations as established, and it has been noted that the New York population has been supplemented by the expanding Ontario population. Because it is often impossible to confirm that an individual originates from an officially established population, the committee is faced with a question of "Innocent until proven guilty" or "Guilty until proven innocent."
The MD/DCRC intends to adopt an informal policy based on "Innocent until proven guilty." If a report establishes an identification as Trumpeter Swan, and if no information suggests provenance from a captive program or unestablished population, the record can be considered a baseline "Accepted."
Note that each report will be carefully evaluated, and specific circumstances might result in a report being deemed "Not Accepted" or "Accepted with Questionable Origin." What matters most is that all Trumpeter Swan reports are recorded for future research and for monitoring the success of the reintroduction programs. Such a record will be maintained via the MD/DCRC database.
Good birding,
Bill Hubick
Chair, MD/DCRC
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Bill Hubick
Pasadena, Maryland
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http://www.billhubick.com
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