Pushed to brink, swans rebound with help from global warming
Jan. 18, 2012 Hunted to near extinction in the 19th century, the
trumpeter swan is taking advantage of warmer, longer summers to
expand its range and numbers - one of the few good news stories
of global warming, at least for now By Jane Kay ANCHORAGE,
Alaska – Outside Alaska's largest city, where wildlife is more
common than pigeons, locals bearing field glasses turn out every
year to watch blazingly white trumpeter swans stop to feed on
their way south for the winter. The swans, famed for their
French horn call and immortalized by author E.B. White, were
nearly hunted to extinction in much of the United States and
Canada by the late 1800s for their meat, feathers, down and
quills. Now, North America's largest wild fowl may be one of the
few good-news stories of global warming – at least for the short
term. Trumpeters, which reach 38 pounds with an 8-foot wingspan,
need a long summer to raise young to a size where they can keep
up with the flock on