That success has been repeated in many areas, due largely to a
relatively abundant supply of eggs in Alaska. But transporting
those eggs back to the "Lower 48" is a challenging feat indeed.
The eggs are collected when the embryos are 20 to 25 days old,
Johnson says, because they are hardy enough to survive the
rigors of transcontinental travel. "We had special boxes that
held the eggs in an upright position so the little embryos
didn't get scrambled," Johnson says. The boxes were packed with
hot water bottles and loaded aboard commercial aircraft for the
18-hour trip from Fairbanks to points south. Johnson says his
group has collected 869 eggs over the past few years, and 777 of
them hatched. Of those, 661 survived, and 584 were released into
the wilds. "That's right around 90 percent success" at each step
in the process, he says. Some of the birds were held back for
genetic testing, and that revealed the importance of collecting
the eggs in Alaska. It turns out that the Alaskan swans have far
greater genetic