To be sincere, I by no means cared an excessive amount of for swans. On the one hand, they’re very straightforward to see in Germany, swimming in public parks or instructing pensioners learn how to eat bread. Alternatively, their white shade and their appreciable dimension made me see them as considerably boastful birds – the white Golf convertible of the hen world.
Opposite to how ChatGPT would now proceed this submit, seeing them at Lake Kussharo didn’t actually change this view. In winter, this lake is nearly fully frozen – however just a few meters very near the coast are close to some sizzling springs, and the Whooper Swans use this house to assemble and principally do nothing there (which didn’t do something to alter my notion of them).
They’re ridiculously unafraid of individuals there – so the cynic in me suspects that swan meat shouldn’t be considered tasty by the Japanese (one other clarification, that the Japanese similar to animals an excessive amount of, can presumably be discarded given the nation’s very principled strategy in insisting on the correct to kill whales).
And now we get to the a part of the submit during which I briefly and unscientifically point out just a few analysis papers on the species to have a motive to submit just a few extra of my pictures.
One paper finds that medium-height windfarms are a much bigger threat for Whooper Swans than massive wind generators, as apparently, the swans fly comparatively low and thus face a much bigger collision threat with the previous. So, for those who plan to erect a wind turbine in your backyard and in addition hold swans, ensure the turbine may be very excessive.
The Journal “Ecological Indicators” might presumably do with higher peer reviewers – the highlights part of a paper on “Stimulating results of Whooper Swans’ behaviors on nutrient releasing from the sediments attributable to completely different human feeding intensities within the swan Lake, China” (in itself a little bit of a catastrophe of a title) has sentences akin to “Aggression behaviors of swans benefited for extra nutrient N and P launch from the sediment underneath supplemental feeding disturbance” which might be a significant sentence in Chinese language however not likely in English. It appears the paper is on the impact of swan feeding and swan motion on the discharge of vitamins, however given the language, I can’t be too positive about this.
Different researchers apparently tried to get their universities to fund their drone toys, leading to papers with titles akin to “Using drones to check the breeding productiveness of Whooper Swan“.
Another finding doesn’t come as a shock to birders watching birds each from vehicles and on foot. Pedestrians alert the Whooper Swans for longer intervals than automobiles and plane.
A total of 13 authors regarded on the migration patterns of Whooper Swans (4 of them apparently had been concerned within the idea growth of the examine – it should certainly be very arduous to develop an idea for a hen migration examine). They discovered that the Whooper Swans traveled extra quickly in autumn (22 days) than in spring (57 days), which is considerably stunning to me.
On the finish of the summary, they quite pompously (however admittedly throughout the norms of scientific boasting) state that “These findings are vital for the conservation and administration of Whooper Swans and their key habitats in East Asian areas, and the information are anticipated to make a very vital contribution towards creating detailed administration plans for the conservation of their key habitats.”
Presumably, all readers of 10,000 Birds assume that nature reserves are necessary – a paper tries to quantify that significance to some extent. It states that populations of Whooper Swans develop 30 occasions quicker inside nature reserves than outdoors.
One other location issue is highlands versus lowlands – Whooper Swans breeding in Icelandic lowlands had a a lot greater breeding success than the highland birds (source). Nonetheless, some swans declare that the views are significantly better within the highland habitat, and others are usually not that eager on elevating chicks anyway.
Lastly, for those who actually love Whooper Swans and wish to get to know the whole lot that’s to learn about them, take a look at papers on the “Comparative Analysis of the Fecal Bacterial Microbiota of Wintering Whooper Swans” or on the “First detection of Blastocystis sp. in migratory whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) in China”. And if a swan seems to be at you in a very boastful manner, present it these papers too.
Notice: Whereas all pictures had been taken on Hokkaido in Feb 2024, not all had been taken at Lake Kussharo.
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