Chicago Botanic Garden

General info

Trumpeter Swans and Cygnets


Over the past nine years, the Chicago Botanic Garden worked with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to transfer trumpeter swans hatched at our campus to their location. We won’t be making such an announcement this year, and that’s a good thing.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports that wild trumpeter swans—once decimated in their native wetlands due to hunting and habitat loss—have returned to a sustainable level thanks to contributions of botanic gardens and zoo -hatched birds. There are currently 42 nesting pairs in the wild in Iowa, near the level at which researchers consider these swans a self-sustaining population.

Wild nesting pairs are regularly producing cygnets, which have matured, fledged, paired up, and started their own broods. These birds are joining migration routes that their ancestors traveled and mentoring youngsters on winged trips to warmer climates when winter approaches. Trumpeter swans in this program have been documented in 17 states and Canada.

We are proud to report that 14 trumpeter swans hatched at the Chicago Botanic Garden have been released to the wild. This endangered species’ return in Iowa is encouraging—a success story that highlights just one component of our global conservation efforts. In the Chicago area, participation by the Garden and the Lincoln Park Zoo together has led to 51 young swans being released through Iowa’s program.

Because the Iowa program has reached its goal, the Garden has no place to release the cygnets since currently there is no other wild-release program available in the country. Unfortunately, allowing the cygnets to mature at the Garden isn’t an option for us because of the aggressive territorial behavior mating adults exhibit toward other swans—and even toward their own young.

“Dummy” eggs have been placed in the trumpeter swans’ nests on Marsh Island (in the Prairie) and near the Visitor Center. These fakes will allow the parents to complete their natural nesting cycle for the year and will be removed in mid-June..

So there will be no trumpeter swan cygnets paddling around the Garden this summer, but in an odd way that’s a sign of hope, for the absence of young swans at the Garden signals a thriving population in the wild.