The DNR’s initial statewide trumpeter swan population goal was 15 breeding pairs, or 30 individuals.
A recent estimate suggests the number of Minnesota trumpeters is north of 51,000 — and growing.
For perspective, only 64,000 blue-winged teal — traditionally one of the state’s most abundant ducks — were counted this spring during the DNR’s annual aerial waterfowl census.
Increasing numbers of duck and goose hunters are asking whether the presence of so many trumpeters is reducing available nesting sites for other waterfowl, while also damaging wetland and shallow lake ecology.
“I was so excited the first time I saw those darn things that I called the DNR,” said Greg Lillemon, who lives on Lake Christina, near Ashby, Minn., a famed Minnesota waterfowl lake. “I was all pumped up about it. Then it got to be 25 swans, then 50 and 75 and 100, staying on the lake all summer. At night, they made so much noise they kept me up.”
Worse, Lillemon said, is that trumpeters are voracious consumers of sago pondweed tubers, a favorite food also of mallards and other dabbling ducks.