\n<\/p>\n
A new law in California will allow year-round killing of non-native swans starting next year \u2013 a move that some officials have said is essential to protect the state\u2019s already diminished wetlands and native waterfowl, but which others have labeled as \u201cinhumane\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mute swans, which have been valued as ornamental birds, have rapidly expanded across California, where wildlife officials say they degrade habitats and aggressively displace native species.<\/p>\n
Assembly bill 764, signed into law by California\u2019s governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month, adds mute swans to the list of invasive birds that can be hunted with few restrictions, joining the English sparrow and starling. The law goes into effect on 1 January.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is that their numbers have proliferated and they do a lot of damage to the wetlands,\u201d said Peter Tira, information officer at the California department of fish and wildlife (CDFW). \u201cCalifornia has lost between 90 and 95% of its historic wetlands, and these birds occupy those wetlands and do a lot of damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mute swans can alter wetlands when they move into areas where they have not previously been.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re big birds, they do tend to consume quite a lot of vegetation,\u201d said Margaret Rubega, an ornithologist and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. \u201cThey eat aquatic vegetation, stuff that will grow with its roots underwater, and they not only eat a lot of it, but they will tend to dig it up at the roots, so they\u2019re disturbing the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really have the capacity to alter the nature of the wetland a lot, and in a way that will change it for, not only the other birds, but for all kinds of other plants and animals,\u201d added Rubega.<\/p>\n
Once they establish a territory, especially during breeding season when they are protecting eggs or chicks, mute swans aggressively chase away other birds that enter their feeding area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sort of like the equivalent of taking a 17-year-old high school student and putting him in the school yard at a middle school,\u201d said Rubega. \u201cHe\u2019s going to win every encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a statement by the CDFW, mute swans are not protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act since they were introduced to North America in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Mute swans are native to northern and central Eurasia and were brought to the United States by private breeders.<\/span> Photograph: Dave Stevenson\/Alamy<\/p>\n Republican Jeff Gonzalez authored the bill, with sponsorship from the California Waterfowl Association, a non-profit that advocates for hunting and waterfowl conservation in California. The bill also received support from the American Bird Conservancy, the Grassland Water District, the Tulare Basin Wetlands Association and others.<\/p>\n Besides licensed hunters, the law allows property owners and their tenants with written permission to hunt mute swans without a license.<\/p>\n Mute swans are native to northern and central Eurasia and have been domesticated in western Europe since the 12th century. They were brought to the United States by private breeders to be displayed in zoos, public parks and on private estates. Some escaped captivity, while others were released on purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a lot of folks, the idea that they\u2019re not native is sort of tenuous,\u201d Rubega said. \u201cIf it\u2019s been around your whole life long, you think of that as one of our birds. They\u2019ve been in North America for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Tira, the second-largest threat to California\u2019s native species, after habitat loss, is invasive species.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is certainly a problematic species, but now there\u2019s at least one tool to help address it,\u201d Tira said.<\/p>\n Not everyone supported the bill. Friends of Animals, an animal advocacy group based in New York, released a statement in August urging Californians to call and write their representatives to oppose the bill, which they called \u201cinhumane\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a desperate attempt by a dying hunting industry to add another \u2018bird to the bag\u2019, and we won\u2019t stand by and let it happen!\u201d reads the statement.<\/p>\n These swans are currently still bought in some states for aesthetic landscaping, to control aquatic vegetation or to rid other waterfowl. In California, mute swans are listed as a restricted species and cannot be imported, transported or possessed without a permit, according to the CDFW page.<\/p>\n Mute swans eat up to 8lbs of vegetation per day, and weigh 25-30lbs. They can grow up to 5.5ft in length, with a wingspan up to nearly 8ft. They have caused serious injuries to children and pets, according to CDFW.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they have eggs or they have chicks, they are very aggressive indeed and perfectly capable of hurting a human,\u201d Rubega said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll definitely come at you, not only with their beak, but they\u2019ll sort of raise their wings and flap the front edge of their wing at something they consider to be invading their territory. They\u2019re capable of breaking your wrist by whacking you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new law in California will allow year-round killing of non-native swans starting next year \u2013 a move that some officials have said is essential to protect the state\u2019s already diminished wetlands and native waterfowl, but which others have labeled as \u201cinhumane\u201d. Mute swans, which have been valued as ornamental birds, have rapidly expanded across<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[17929,667,17928,150,17927,5004,14302],"class_list":{"0":"post-30600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-aggressive","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-hunting","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-problematic","13":"tag-species","14":"tag-swans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}