The federal government is considering a proposal to establish a new hunting season for tundra swans in the Prairie provinces — a move that one hunter says could endanger trumpeter swans, a similar-looking, sensitive species.
Proposed changes to Canada’s migratory bird regulations would create a new tundra swan hunting season in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Tundra swans are hunted in a handful of U.S. states, but in Canada they’re currently a protected species at the federal level.
David Duncan, a hunter and retired biologist, says such a hunt could lead to people mistakenly shooting trumpeter swans, a sensitive species that can’t be hunted anywhere in North America.
I think the only way you’d figure it out would be field ambush hunting where you can get a good look at a flock as they come down in a pea field or something. It doesn’t sound like they migrate together and their flyways might be fairly predictable for targeting hunting areas.
But other than size which is hard to judge on the wing, I wouldn’t take a shot based on that.
I know a lot of people are instinctively against hunting, but with massive food availability on harvested fields in wintering areas with no predators, these species can grow out of control very quickly. Snow geese are devastating arctic areas that are very slow to rebound because of the sheer numbers and lack of hunters. I had heard about this sort of concern with mixing up swans with snow geese, though that’s a lot easier to identify on the wing so I don’t think there’s been much bykill from that.